Joint Resolution to be introduced by General Assembly early next year would formally acknowledge, apologize for State’s role

Wilmington, DE – Joined by state legislators, community advocates and local parishioners during a worship service at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Governor Markell today recognized the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to legally abolish slavery.

“For generations, our country denied and actively contested a basic fact of humanity: that nothing about the color of one’s skin affects that person’s innate rights to freedom and dignity,” said Governor Markell. “We must publicly and candidly acknowledge the lasting damage of past sins – damage that continues to reverberate more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery.”

​Building on recent efforts to address historic injustices, including the recent issuance of a pardon for Underground Railroad conductor Samuel Burris, the Governor also announced his support of a joint resolution to officially condemn and apologize for Delaware’s role in slavery.

“The resolution being introduced today will do more than write a footnote into the history books that describe the atrocious conditions that some Delawareans inflicted upon people of African descent,” said Governor Markell. “This marks an important moment in owning up to our responsibility to fix the long legacy of damage that continues to result in inequality and unfair obstacles for countless citizens because of their race.”

The House Joint Resolution (HJR) is sponsored by Representative Stephanie T. Bolden (D-Wilmington East) and Senate Majority Whip Margaret Rose Henry (D-Wilmington East) and will be introduced during legislative session early next year.

“Today we celebrate the ratification of the 13th Amendment and the voice it gave to those who were once voiceless, declaring for all time that no American would labor without reward,” said Rep. Bolden. “However, that act did not erase the memory of what our state did in the age before emancipation. For African Americans in Delaware, and for all Delawareans, we must join with other former slaveholding states in offering apologies for the inhumanity that was once lawful here.”

“Slavery is the darkest chapter of our nation’s history,” said Senator Henry. “And while the page has long been turned, the scars from the whippings, the bruises from the shackles, the tears from the torment can still be felt all these years later in the continued struggle against racism, prejudice and the power of the privileged. Who we are as a state and nation is shaped by our history – the good and the bad. And who we can be tomorrow is predicated upon our ability to show empathy for each other today. In my view, an apology for slavery is just that: an act of empathy that won’t undo the past, but will once and for all acknowledge the experience of so many Delawareans who still feel its harsh effects.”

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Video and Photos of the event

Issued 168 years later in the same courtroom as his conviction

Dover, DE – In an effort to right a historic injustice, Governor Jack Markell today issued a pardon for Samuel D. Burris, a free black man from Delaware, who, on Nov. 2, 1847, was convicted of aiding slaves escaping from their owners. The ceremony, which took place in the same courtroom in which Burris was convicted 168 years ago, was attended by several of his descendants. (Full text of the pardon is available here.)

“This pardon is an extraordinary act in recognition of a historic wrong that cannot be corrected by a single stroke of a pen,” said Governor Markell. “But while we cannot change what was done more than 150 years ago, we can ensure that Mr. Burris’ legacy is appropriately recognized and celebrated. We affirm today that history will no longer record his actions as criminal, but rather as acts of freedom and bravery in the face of injustice.”

As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Burris is known to have successfully led several enslaved people from Maryland and Delaware to freedom. After an 1847 attempt to bring a young woman, Maria Matthews, out of Kent County, Delaware to Pennsylvania, Burris was captured and charged in three cases of aiding slaves escaping from their owners. Found guilty in two of the cases, he was fined, sentenced to prison and thereafter sentenced to be sold into servitude. After being “purchased” for $500 by Wilmington abolitionist Isaac S. Flint, he was taken to Philadelphia where he was reunited with his wife, children and friends. He continued to work for the abolitionist cause until his death in San Francisco in 1863.

During today’s event, Ocea Thomas, a descendant of Burris, read a letter he wrote dated March 29, 1848. Addressed to his brother and penned while in a jail cell just steps from where today’s ceremony took place, it read in part, “My religion teaches me to believe that as the condition of our heart is when our mortal life leaves us so judgement will find our never dying souls. And if so, what will be the condition of those who lived and died in neglect of that golden rule: do unto others as you would that others should do unto you?”

The ceremony also included the unveiling of a historical marker honoring the noted Underground Railroad conductor. The marker was recently installed near Burris’ home, southwest of Camden, DE at the intersection of Route 10 (Willow Grove Road) and Henry Cowgill Road.

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