When first discovered by the Europeans, Pennsylvania, like the rest of the continent, was inhabited by groups of American Indians, people of Mongoloid ancestry unaware of European culture. The life of the Indians reflected Stone Age back- grounds, especially in material arts and crafts. Tools, weapons, and household equipment were made of wood, stone and bark. The rudiments of a more complex civilization were at hand in the arts of weaving, pottery and agriculture, although hunting and food gathering prevailed. Some Indians formed confederacies such as the league of the Five Nations, which was some New York-Pennsylvania groups of Iroquoian speech.
The English based their claims in North America on the discoveries of the Cabots (1497) while the French pointed to the voyage of Verrazano in 1524. The Spanish claim was founded on Columbus' discovery of the West Indies, but there is evidence that Spanish ships sailed up the coast of North America as early as 1520. It is uncertain that any of these explorers touched land that became Pennsylvania. Capt. John Smith journeyed from Virginia up the Susquehanna River in 1608, visiting the Susquehannock Indians.
In 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the Dutch service, sailed the Half Moon into Delaware Bay, thus giving the Dutch a claim. In 1610 Capt. Samuel Argall of Virginia visited the bay and named it for Lord de la Warr, governor of Virginia. Dutch navigators Cornelis Hendricksen (1616) and Cornelis Jacobson (1623) explored the Delaware region more thoroughly, and trading posts were established in 1647, providing a fur trade with the Susquehannocks, a tribe who eventually fell victim to new diseases brought by the European settlers, and to attacks by Marylanders and the Iroquois, which destroyed them as a nation by 1675.
The Swedes were the first to make permanent settlement, with the expedition of 1637-1638 at the site of Wilmington, Delaware. In 1643, Governor Johan Printz of New Sweden established his capital at Tinicum Island where there is now a state park bearing his name.
Trouble broke out between the Swedes and the Dutch who had trading posts in the area. In 1655 Governor Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherlands seized New Sweden and made it part of the Dutch colony. In 1664, the English seized the Dutch possessions in the name of the Duke of York, the king's brother. Except when it was recaptured by the Dutch in 1673-1674, the Delaware region remained under his jurisdiction until 1681. English laws and civil government were introduced by The Duke of Yorke's Laws in 1676.
March 4, 1681, King Charles II signed a land grant to William Penn in payment of a debt owed to Admiral Sir William Penn. Penn, a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, a religious group who rejected oaths and rituals, opposed war, kept simplicity in speech and dress and thus attracted usually hostile attention, made his cousin William Markham deputy governor of the province and sent him to take control. Penn drew up the First Frame of Government, his proposed constitution which became famous in the summation of his government ideals. In October, 1682, the Proprietor arrived in Pennsylvania and summoned a General Assmebly to Chester on December 4, where the Great Law was adopted, a humanitarian code which became the fundamental basis for law, and which guaranteed liberty of conscience. By the time of Penn's reurn to England in 1684, the foundations of the Quaker Province were well established.
Pennsylvania's political history ran a rocky course during the provinical era. There was a natural conflict between the proprietary and popular elements in the government which began under Penn and grew stronger under his successors. As a result of the English Revolution of 1688 which overthrew King James II, Penn was deprived of his province from 1692 until 1694. In 1701, Penn agreed with the Assembly on a revised constitution, The Charter of Privileges, which remained in effect until 1776. This gave the Assembly full legislative powers and permitted the three Delaware counties to have a separate legislature.
William Penn's heirs, who eventually abandoned Quakerism, were often in conflict with the Assembly which was usually dominated by the Quakers until 1756. One after another governors defending the proprietor's perogatives wore themselves out on the rock of an Assembly vigilent in the deffense of its rights. The people of the frontier areas contended with the people of the older, southeastern region for more adequate representation in the Assembly and better protection in time of war. Such controversities were preparing the people for their part in the Revolution.
As part of the British empire, Pennsylvania was involved in the wars between Great Britain and France for dominance in North America. The government built forts and furnished men and supplies to help defend the empire. The territory claimed for New France included western Pennsylvania. The Longueuil and Celoron expeditions of the Frendh in 1739 and 1749 traversed this region, and French traders competed with Pennsylvanians for Indian trade. The French efforts in 1753-1754 to establish control over the upper Ohio Valley led to the French and Indian War (1754-1763). French forts at Erie (Fort Presque Isle), Waterford (Fort LeBouef), Pittsburgh (Fort Duquesne) and Franklin (Fort Machault), threatened all the middle colonies. In 1753, Washington failed to persuade the French to leave. In the ensuing war, Gen. Braddock's British and colonial army was slaughtered on the Monongahela in 1755, but Gen. John Forbes recaptured the site of Pittsburgh in 1758. After the war, the Indians rose up against the British colonies in Pontiac's War, but in August 1763, Col. Henry Bouquet defeated them at Bushy Run, ending a threat to the frontier in this region.
By the 1850's an exceptionally prosperous farming area had developed in southeastern Pennsylvania, allowing for export of the surplus, adding to its wealth. Wheat and corn were the leading crops, through rye, hemp and flax were also important. Abundant natural resources made for early development of industries. Sawmills and gristmills were usually the first to appear, using the power of the numerous streams. Textile products were spun and woven mostly in the home, shipbuilding became important on the Delaware. The province early gained importance in iron manufacure, producing pig iron as well as finished products. Printing, publishing, and the related industry of papermaking, as well as tanning, were significant industries. The rivers were important as early arteries of commerce, and were soon supplemented by roads in the southeastern area. The Conestoga wagon, developed in Pennsylvania for land travel, played an major part in expansion to the West. Stagecoach lines by 1776 reached from Philadelphia into the southcentral region. Trade with Indians for furs was important in the early period. Later the transport and sale of farm products to Philadelphia and Baltimore by water and road formed the base for Philadelphia's becoming a major center in the conduct of foreign trade, and the commercial metropolis of an expanding hinterland.
By 1776 the Province of Pennsylvania had become the third largest English colonly in America, though next to the last to be founded. Philadelphia had become the largest English- speaking city in the world next to London. There were originally three counties: Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks; by 1773 there were eleven, with the creation of Westmoreland west of the Alleghenies. Settlement had moved far to the west.
The American Revolution had urban origins, and Philadelphia was a center of ferment. Groups of artisans and mechanics, many loyal to Benjamin Franklin, formed grassroots leadership. Philadelphia was a center of resistance to the Stamp Act (1765) and moved quickly to support Boston against the impact of the Intolerable Acts, in 1774.
Pennsylvanians may well take pride in the dominant role played by their state in the early development of the national government. At the same time that Pennsylvania was molding its own statehood, it was providing leadership and a meetingplace for the men concerned with building a nation.
Philadelphia was the nation's capital during the Revolution, except when the British threat caused the capital to be moved to Baltimore, Lancaster and York. While Congress was sitting in York (Oct. 1777-June 1778), it approved the Articles of Confederation, the first step toward a national government. After the war the capital was moved to New York, but from 1790 until the opening of the District of Columbia in 1800, Philadelphia was again the capital. In 1787 the U.S. Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania troops took part in almost all the campaigns of the Revolution. A rifle battalion joined in the seige of Boston in August 1775. Others fought bravely in the ill-fated Canadian campaign of 1776 and the New York and New Jersey campaigns. The British naturally considered Philadelphia of key importance and in the summer of 1777, invaded the state and captured the capital. Following several battles in the area, Washington went into winter quarters at Valley Forge from Dec. 1777 to June 1778. News of the French alliance, which Benjamin Franklin helped to negotiate, and the adoption of new strategy caused the British to leave Philadelphia in the spring of 1778. Pennsylvania soldiers formed a major portion of Wahington's army and such military leaders as Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne, and Daniel Brodhead gave valuable service. Pennsylvania also aided in the creation of the Continental navy, many ships being built or purchased in the Philadelphia shipyards and manned by Pennsylvania sailors.
The products of Pennsylvania farms, factories and mines were essential to the success of the Revolutionary armies. The state turned out cannons, swords, pikes and muskets, and encouraged the manufacture of gunpowder. Pennsylvania's financial support, both from its government and individuals aided greatly in the Revolution. In 1782, the Bank of North America was chartered to support government fiscal needs, Robert Morris and Haym Salomon were major investors.
Pennsylvania's part in the American Revolution was complicated by political changes within the state, constituting a Pennsylvania revolution of which not all patriots approved. The temper of the people outran the conservatism of the Provincial Assembly. Extralegal committees gradually took over the reins of government, and in June 1776, these committees called a state convention to meet on July 15, 1776, where the old government was superceded completely. A Council of Saftey was established to rule in the interim, and the first state constitution was adopted on September 28, 1776, providing an assembly of one house, a supreme executive council instead of a governor, and the abolition of slavery. The Declaration of Rights section has been copied in subsequent constitutions without significant change. In November, 1789 the conservatives felt strong enough to rewrite the state constitution, and the Assembly called a which provided for a second legislative house, the State Senate, and a strong governor with extensive appointing powers.
Because of a lack of central power, as well as financial difficulties, the Articles of Confederation could no longer bind the newly independent states together. As a result, the Federal Constitutuional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787. The structure that evolved remains the basis of our government today. The Pennsylvania Assembly sent eight delagates to the Federal Convention. Four of these had been signers of the Declaration of Independence; including Benjamin Franklin, Gouverneur Wilson, and James Wilson. The delagation supported every move to strengthen the national government and signed the finished constitution on September 17. The conservatives on the Pennsylvania Assembly took swift action to call a ratifying convention, which met in Philadlphia on November 21. The Federalists, favoring ratification, elected a majority of delagates and, led by Wilson, made Pennsylvania the second state to ratify, on Dec. 12, 1787.
The Quakers were the first group to express organized opposition to slavery. It slowly disappeared in Pennsylvania under the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1780, but the issue of slavery became acute after 1820. Many Pennsylvanians were adverse to the return of fugitive slaves to their masters. Under an Act of 1826 which was passed to restrain this, a Maryland agent was convicted of kidnapping in 1837, but the Unnited States Supreme Court declared the Act unconstitutional in 1842. The state forbade the use of its jails to detain fugitive slaves in 1847. The expression "underground railroad" may have originated in Pennsylvania, where numerous citizens aided the escape of slaves to freedom through New York to Canada. Pennsylvania abolitionist leaders were both black and white. Black leaders included those who made political appeals, James Forten and Robert Purvis; underground railroad workers Robert Porter and William Still; publication activists John B. Vashon and his son George; and the organizer of the Christiana Riot of 1851 against fugitive slave hunters, William Parker. Blacks made some cultural advances during this period. William Whipper organizaed reading rooms in Philadelphia. In 1794 Rev. Absolam Jones founded St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, and Rev. Richard Allen opened the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, both in Philadelphia.
The settlement of new regions of the state was accompanied by provisions for new roads. By 1832, the state led the nation in improved roads, having more than 3,000 miles. Pennsylvania's Conestoga wagon became the typical transport of westward moving pioneers, and U.S. Route 40--the National or Cumberland Road--was a major route for western movement before 1850. Most of the state's major cities were built along river routes, linked by a vast system of canals named the State Works of Pennsylvania. The steamboat originated with experiments by John Fitch of Philadelphia, and Robert Fulton of Lancaster established it as a practical meduim of transportation. Railroads, first built in 1827, operated at first by horsepower or cables, connected coal fields with canals or rivers, and soon expanded into a network that led all other states in track miles by the eve of the civil war.
During the Civil War, Pennsylvania played an important role in preserving the Union. Southern forces invaded Pennsylvania three times by way of the Cumberland Valley, a natural highway from Virginia to the North. This made Pennsylvania's defense efforts doubly important. Pennsylvania's industrial enterprise and natural resources were essential factors in the economic strength of the northern cause. Its railroad systems, industries and agricultual wealth were vital for financial support and nearly 350,000 Pennsylvanians served in the Union forces, including 8,600 black volunteers. At the beginning, President Lincoln's call for 14 regiments was answered by 25. In June, 1863 Gen. Robert E. Lee turned his 75,00 men northward in a major invasion of Pennsylvania. The state called up reserves and volunteers for emergency duty; at Pittsburgh the citizens fortified the surrounding hills, and both sides of the river at Harrisburg. Confederate forces captured Carlisle and advanced to within three miles of Harrisburg; the bridge at Wrightsville had to be burned to prevent their crossing. These outlying forces were recalled when the Union army under Gen. George G. Meade met Lee's army at Gettysburg. In a bitterly fought engagement on the first three days of July, the Union army threw back the Confederate forces, a major turning point of the struggle to save the Union. In 1864, in retaliation for Union raids on Virginia, a Confedeate force under General John McCausland advanced to Chambersburg and threatened to burn the town unless a large ramson was paid. The citizens refused, and Chambersburg was burned on July 20, leaving two-thirds of its people homeless.
By 1895 the island of Cuba was in a state of revolution, its people desiring to break away from Spanish rule. News of harsh methods used to supress Cuban outbreaks aroused anger in the United States. When the battleship Maine blew up in the Havana harbor, war became inevitable in 1898. Congressman Robert Adams of Phildelphia wrote the resolutions declaring war on Spain and recognizing the independence of Cuba. President McKinley's call for volunteers was answered with enthusiasm. Although no Pennsylvanian troops fought in Cuba, units from the Commonwealth saw action in Peurto Rico and a Pennsylvania regiment was the first American organization to engage in land combat in the Phillipine Islands.
Pennsylvania's resources and manpower were of great value to the war effort of 1917-1918. The shipyards of Philadelphia and Chester were decisive in maintaining maritime transport. Pennsylvania's mills and factories provided a large part of war materials for the nation.
The manufacture of steel and iron products was the largest single industry. The story of Andrew Carnegie, Henry C. Frick, Charles M. Schwab, Eugene Grace and other "iron men" is in a large measure the story of modern American business. Food prcessing grew into a major industry. 1905 was the year of the Hershey Chocolate factory and the incorporation of H.J. Heinz Co. Henry J. Heinz led a movement for modern factories based on the principle that workers deserve clean, pleasant work conditions. Also, he fought for Federal legislation outlawing commercially processed foods that had false labels and harmful chemical adulterations.
In World War II, 1.25 million Pennsylvanians served in the armed forces, or about one-eighth of the population. Pennsylvania's industrial resources made her the "Arsenal of America"; planes, tanks, armored cars, guns and shells poured out of her factories. Ships were launched and steady streams of war goods flowed over her railroads and highways. In total war production, Pennsylvania ranked sixth among the states. It furnished almost one-third of the nation's steel.
After the end of World War II the United Nations was established as a parliament of governments in which disputes between nations could be settled peacefully. Nevertheless, the United States amd Communist countries started an arms race that led to a "cold war", resulting in several undeclared limited wars. Individual Pennsylvanians were among Americans who fought in Korea and Vietnam.
Source: State of Pennsylvania.