Editing Ellendale, Delaware (section)

===The Black Camp Insurrection===
The "Nanticoke Swamp", as the Ellendale Swamp was then called, was depicted as a place where criminals routinely hid from the law in the depositions of a 1759 murder that occurred. One of the main causes being the issue of jurisdiction as both Maryland and Delaware were in a boundary dispute and claimed the area. The Ellendale Swamp became a refuge for [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] at the time of the [[1780 Black Camp Rebellion|1780 Black Camp Insurrection]] during the [[American Revolution]]. Harold Hancock describes the [[insurrection]] in his ''History of Sussex County'': "With the removal of the British from Philadelphia in the spring of 1778, the number of enemy vessels in Delaware Bay decreased, and the activities of Sussex County Tories diminished. Only one other insurrection in Sussex County occurred – the famous [[1780 Black Camp Rebellion|Black Camp Rebellion of 1780]]. The insurrectionists were mainly from [[Cedar Creek Hundred|Cedar Creek]] and Slaughter Neck Hundred, and their headquarters were in a swamp about six miles (10&nbsp;km) north of Georgetown. Their leaders, Bartholomew Banynum (Banum) and William Dutton, had about 400 men formed in "Associations" or militia companies. An investigator reported the causes as follows: ‘Some of these ignorant people were for opposing all law, others for establishing what they called the King’s Laws – and others for opposing the payment of taxes – but generally seem to have believed that all to the southward of [[Chesapeake Bay]] had laid down their arms and submitted to the King’s Laws – and that they should very easy make Sussex County do the same.’

Militia from Kent County dispersed the insurrectionists. Some were sent off to serve in the Continental Army, and thirty-seven were indicted for treason in the State Supreme Court. Eight were ordered to be hanged ‘by the neck but not till you be dead, for then your bowels must be taken out and burnt before your face, then your head must be severed from your body, and your body divided into four Quarters, and these must be at the disposal of the Supreme Authority in the State. Fortunately this sentence which was customary for treason was not carried out, and all the participants were pardoned by the General Assembly on November 4, 1780."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stateplanning.delaware.gov/comp_plans/ellendale_comp_plan_122004.pdf|title=ELCOMPPLANTEXT120704Final<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=March 16, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501003748/http://stateplanning.delaware.gov/comp_plans/ellendale_comp_plan_122004.pdf|archive-date=May 1, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

There were two small villages in the area of Ellendale's current location by 1790. They were Fleatown (or [[Federalsburg, Delaware|Federalsburg]]) to the north, and New Market to the east, both of which later became ghost towns with the establishment of Ellendale.