Overview
Delaware's claim to the title "The First State" rests on more than the ratification vote of 1787. This route begins at New Castle Court House Museum, where Delaware's representatives took the decisive 1776 step of separating from Pennsylvania and Great Britain. The preserved courthouse makes the state's political transformation tangible in the place where colonial government became state government. The trip then turns south to John Dickinson Plantation, home landscape of one of the era's most influential political writers and a signer of the U.S. Constitution. Interpretation there broadens the founding story by including the enslaved, indentured, and free Black people whose lives were bound to the plantation. The route ends at The Old State House on Dover's historic Green, where Delaware's early government took institutional form after the state moved its capital to Dover. Together, the three stops show independence, constitutional thought, and state-building as connected chapters rather than isolated milestones.
