Smyrna times., 1896-01-01
THE TRUE STORY OF
THE DELAWARE MOORS

| them are so fair and so ruddy that they
are often mistaken for white men, and
in fact, this is how one day their fanci
full story of descent from captive
Moor came to be ventilated in cour
of justice in Sussex county, and theil
strange history for the first time giver
an air of credence.
After that such notable Delawareanl
as Judge George 2. Fisher took a pro
found interest in these people. Chas
Brown, who owned large tracts in anG
about place which was then called
Moorton, after them, but which is now
set down on the maps as Cheswold,
bequeathed to them piece of land OF
which to build a school. Other equally
well-known men of affairs in the lower
end of Delaware for the first time began
to take an interest, as if they had found
curiosity to be proud of in their owl
native State. Around the little towr
of Cheswold there is a settlement com.
prising about 200 of this peculiar race
They are now in an interesting stage
of development. They have church
and school, manage their own affairs
and are looked upon as the most in
dustrious citizens of the place
Cheswold is about sixty-eight miles
from Philadelphia, and can be reached
by the Pennsylvania Railroad. 1t is in
the heart of Kent county, and the
pOpulace in and around Cheswold is an
exact type of the race who inhabit the
belt stretching away to the lower end
OF the State. Contrary to what one
would expect who has been reared in a
large city, and grown familiar with the
colonization methods of various races,
who segregate III sections which they
afterward make their own, the Della
ware MOors do not huddle together in
any particular locality. They have no
monopoly of any part of the town, and
the agricultural and industrial pursuits
that inject the only life into Cheswold
are not controlled by the race.
One hardly knows on stepping from
the train that there exists such a colonv
as the Delaware Moors in and about
CheswOld, and it is only by assiduous
questioning and little personal ex-
ploration that at last he is brought face
to face with certain unmistakable signs
that shows that these people have made
this place their own. A short walk TO
the end of the town soon tells the
story. The 'yaller" man, as he is
called, is soon i'll evidence, and before
you take many steps you begin to find
that he is pretty numerous, tills the
soil, conducts business and carries on
trade with his fair brethren much like
the members of any other civilized
colony. Should you engage him in
conversation you will find that the
tone, together with the gesture and
carriage, are of race different from
the cOlored people of the neighbor-
hood. Should you desire to know
aught of Cheswold and of the Moors.
he will gladly tell you, for every men,
Der of the tribe seems to be well ac
quainted with it's history
The town is little collection of two
or three-stOried frame houses. with
here and there a really pretentious
dwelling, all clustered about a central
avenue. The railroad runs through
the eastern verge of the place, and on
either side are comfortable dwellings.
inhabited by workingmen, or in the
case of one of them, by the pastor of
the modest little village church. Your
Moorish friend will point to it from
where he stands. It is the first yellow
house from the grocery store on the
main street, and directly opposite is
the canning factory which, fully run
ming, employs twenty or thirty men.
The factory is an institution of Ches-
void, for the surrounding country,
with its many farms and bountiful
crops, is famous for its mellow fruit,
The most interesting place in the
town, however, is the home of Cornell
ius Ridgeway, the patriarch of the
colony. 1t is a yellow-colored frame
building, the first on the left as Won
turn from the railroad He is man
OF about 60, has bright face, and, YOU
will soon see, is an industrious worker
at shoe-making. Despite the lowliness
OF his calling he follows it as would
knight the tourney. There is a kindly
look in his eye as you mention the race
whose patriarch he is and whose his
tory he knows by heart. He will glad
ly lay his work aside to take up the
thread of the Moors' history.
There are some of them" pointing
to couple of youths, fair of face and
almost white, who are just leaving his
shop. "Do they look like negroes?"
The Delaware Moors, according to
the story told by Cornelius and the
other patriarchs, came into the history
OF the State over a hundred years ago.
but they We're never assigned a place
until the trial of Levi Sokum. a mem
Der of the race, who was charged with
selling powder and shot to Isaiah
Harmon, another member of the race,
whom the prosecution contended was n
mulatto. There were no records Of the
tribe up to that time, and all that was
known was handed down from father
to son and told about by the old men
OF the race, who guarded the Younger
members Of tho docks and zealouslv
instilled into their minds the strange
teaching that declared them to be Of n
purer strain than any of their neigh
bors, and forbade the young TO play
with or the youths and maidens to in
termarry with those Of another race.
BY the patrimchs it was preached
about that their progenitors were a
Moorish prince who had been sold into
captivity because Of troubles in his
o. dominion, and who, DIS fate would
ave it, was bought by young Irish
woman whQ herself was an exile, and
was banished from duchy in Spain
that rightfully belonged fb and her
impoverished father.
Senorita Requa, or Miss Reeean, as
L. =