Earlier this month, as the nation celebrated its 250th anniversary, in a moment of serendipity that was not planned, the City of Wilmington released the Caesar Rodney and Enslavement Research Project, which was commissioned in the years following the removal of Rodney’s statue from the downtown square that bears his name.
Debbie Martin, the historic preservation planner for Wilmington’s Department of Land Use and Planning, said at the time of the statue’s removal tensions were high, opinions were strong, but information was light on facts.
“I and a couple of historian friends got together and talked about what we could do, and we decided that we really did need a base document of facts,” said Martin, who soon realized she was going to need assistance in the endeavor…