Meetings & Events

Separation Day 2016 – 240 Years


06/11/2016 - 11:00 AM
Location: Downtown Historic New Castle
Address:
New Castle, DE 19720

Visit the Separation Day Website

The Fourth of July is celebrated as Independence Day, but in Delaware we have another one that’s all our own.

On June 15, 1776 – more than two weeks before the fateful vote in Philadelphia – Delaware declared its own independence.

The scene was set as the Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia, considering what soon would become the Declaration of Independence.

Residents representing the three counties that were then “The Assembly of the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania” – New Castle, Kent and Sussex-upon-Delaware – gathered in New Castle, which would become the state’s first capital.

At what is now known as the New Castle Court House Museum and part of the First State National Historical Park, they voted unanimously to reject not only the rule of the England and King George III, but also the authority of the family of William Penn.

Separation Day celebrations are now held annually in New Castle on the second Saturday in June.