Why Should Delaware Care?
A national conversation has been ongoing for years about whether statues of controversial people who were part of the history of the United States should be prominently displayed in public places. In Delaware, the conversation has focused on the state’s Declaration of Independence signatory, Caesar Rodney.
A statue of Delaware Founding Father Caesar Rodney that drew controversy for his ownership of slaves is likely to be taken out of storage for the first time in five years and put on display in Washington, D.C., for the America 250 celebration this coming summer.
The move is a result of a years-long crusade by State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-South Dover) to place the statue back into public view. Wilmington officials had removed it from the city’s downtown park, Rodney Square, in 2020 during protests of the police killing of George Floyd.
Buckson noted that he has held “many active conversations” with federal officials and said he is confident that the statue would be in Washington, D.C. by next summer. After that, it will relocate to a permanent display location in Kent County, he said.
While the future Kent County site has not yet been determined, Buckson and other Kent County leaders have suggested The Green in downtown Dover, or the John Dickinson Plantation.
Among the most well-known Delaware historical figures, Rodney cast a tie-breaking vote to approve the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
He also enslaved over 200 people on a plantation outside of Dover. His slave-owning history was the reason Wilmington removed the statue.
City officials in Wilmington and Dover confirmed Buckson’s plan to ultimately relocate the statue to Kent County.
Federal government officials did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s requests for comment about whether the Caesar Rodney statue will be a part of the 250th anniversary celebration in D.C.
Delaware Historical Society treasurer Kevin McGonegal said the statue should, eventually, be put back on display, along with a complete description of Rodney’s life, including as a slaveowner. But he said that is not an easy thing to represent.
“More discussion is needed to make sure that it is a full picture of the man and his times,” McGonegal said.
A biography
Caesar Rodney is often heralded for his eleventh-hour ride from Kent County to Philadelphia on horseback to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of passing the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776. It would be formally adopted by the Continental Congress two days later in what is now known as Independence Day.
But even that piece of history is not entirely accurate, according to Delaware historian Richard Carter.
People often leave out that Rodney was severely sick with cancer by the summer of 1776, so he rode the majority of the 80 miles up to Philadelphia in an enclosed carriage, rather than on horseback, Carter said.
At the time, Rodney was one of the largest slaveholders in Delaware with over 200 people enslaved on his Byfield plantation, according to public archives.
Still, some describe Rodney as having had a complicated relationship with the institution of slavery.
He tried to pass bills in the Colonial Assembly and the Delaware state government banning the importation of additional enslaved people into the state, according to Carter.
About 150 years later, the widely known statue of Rodney riding on horseback, seemingly on his way to Philadelphia, was erected in Rodney Square. The figure was originally placed in Wilmington, rather than Dover, Carter said, because the capital city did not have the money to fund the project at the time.
The statue was removed from the square in June 2020, when city officials became worried it could be vandalized by protestors, a 2020 press release from then-Mayor Mike Purzycki stated.
A statue of Christopher Columbus on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington was also removed around the same time.
To University of Delaware sociology and criminal justice professor Yasser Payne, the removal of the Caesar Rodney statue felt more like a desperate attempt to save the statue from potential destruction than a true effort to reflect on his history.
“On its face, it’s good. But it’s really what many of us would call racial symbolism,” Payne said.
Payne said racial symbolism refers to a phenomenon when a person takes a step that appears to be toward racial progress, but doesn’t substantially address structural issues.
Reinstating Rodney
Since the statue’s removal, it has been in storage facilities in New Jersey and Delaware, according to a spokesperson for Wilmington Mayor John Carney’s office.
Meanwhile, Buckson has been fighting to bring back the statue of Rodney, who he calls his “fellow Kent Countian.”
Last spring, Buckson introduced a resolution to the state legislature, calling for Rodney’s statue to be relocated to Kent County prior to the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. After the proposal failed to gain traction, he turned his attention to the City of Wilmington.
A spokesperson for Carney’s office said the city has been consistently supportive of the idea of relocating the Rodney statue first to Washington D.C. and then to Kent County.
The spokesperson declined to comment as to whether the statue might eventually change ownership from the City of Wilmington to the City of Dover or Kent County.
Buckson added that he would have been happy to see the statue reinstated in Wilmington, but he gleaned from city officials that was unlikely to happen.
Kent County Levy Court President Joanne Masten and Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen both said they have been a part of conversations about the statue relocation, and are enthusiastic about returning Rodney to Kent County.
“If we hide history, we are going to repeat it,” Christiansen said.
While he is confident the statue will go to Washington, D.C., Buckson said details about where it will be located, and how it will be transported, have yet to be worked out.
A historical reckoning
Historians and Buckson agree that an acknowledgment of Rodney’s complicated legacy needs to accompany the statue’s reinstallment. But nobody is quite sure what that acknowledgment should look like.
McGonagel, a board member of the state historical society, said he proposes that his organization facilitate public discussions to gather input.
Buckson said he would suggest assembling a group of people from the state, the county, and the city of Dover to determine how to best display Rodney’s legacy.
For some, though, a lot more than just a paragraph or two describing Rodney’s story is necessary.
Carter, the Delaware historian, said he would go for something “more substantial” than a plaque, like an accompanying memorial about the history of Black, Native American and other traditionally under-represented Delawareans.
“This time around, I think there is a real effort to tell the full history of Delaware during the Revolutionary War period, and to put people like Rodney into their proper historical context,” he said.