Charles Polk Jr. (November 15, 1788 – October 27, 1857) was an American farmer and politician from Big Stone Beach, in Milford Hundred, Kent County, Delaware.

Robert Polk settled in Somerset County, in the Province of Maryland, in 1660 and the Delaware family descended from him.

Charles Polk Sr. was a veteran of the American Revolution, serving in Colonel David Hall's regiment in 1777.

He was a large landowner in the Bridgeville area, served eight years in the State House, and was a member of the Delaware Constitutional Convention of 1792.

After his father's death in 1795, Charles Jr. attended Westtown Boarding School in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and then studied law with Kensey Johns Sr., but never practiced.

Like the Federalists, the Whigs were especially strong in Kent and Sussex County, but were nearly matched by the new Democratic Party majority in New Castle.

This was an ambitious and creative plan to improve secondary education developed and promoted by Willard Hall, then the United States district judge for Delaware.

During Polk's term declining agricultural yields due to worn out soil were a matter of great concern.

To address the concern, the Delaware General Assembly hired an expert from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, who provided a good deal of helpful advice on the use of fertilizers.

As it happened, the construction of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was beginning, and some farmers in New Castle County realized the marl obtained from the dredging would enrich their soil.

No doubt, reflecting this thinking Polk, as governor in 1837, blamed the problem on inadequate labor, saying the problem lay with "the wretched condition of the colored population which infests the state...irresponsible, lawless, and miserable...a migratory tribe without fixed abode, alternatively roving from city to country."

He and others were concerned about the large number of free African-Americans and rather than addressing the issue directly, sought to restrict their entry into Delaware.