Introduction to History of Pennsylvania
Remains of Ice Age settlements dating back more than 10,000 years have been found in Pennsylvania. Little is known of the peoples who lived there except that they were nomadic hunters who had migrated from the west. It is believed that later Indian tribes who occupied the region prior to historic times were also nomadic.
When European explorers arrived in the 17th century, the Indian population of the area was about 15,000 to 20,000. Indians of the Algonquian language family lived in eastern and central Pennsylvania. In the east were Indians who called themselves Lenni-Lenape ("Original People"), but were named Delaware by the English. The Shawnee Indians occupied central Pennsylvania. In western Pennsylvania were tribes of the Iroquoian language family.
European Exploration and Settlement
Henry Hudson explored Delaware Bay for the Netherlands in 1609. Cornelius Jacobsen May conducted more extensive exploration in the same area, also for the Netherlands, in 1623. Although Dutch and Swedish settlements were established early in the 17th century along the Delaware River in what are now the states of Delaware and New Jersey, Pennsylvania was not colonized until 1643. In that year, Johan Printz, governor of a Swedish colony at what is now Wilmington, Delaware, set up his capital on Tinicum Island, an island in the Delaware four miles (6 km) west of the Schuykill River. A second Swedish settlement, at what is now Chester, was founded later that year. The Dutch annexed the Swedish colony in 1655, but in 1664 lost all their American holdings when the English conquered New Amsterdam.
In 1681 William Penn, an English Quaker, received a grant from Charles II to the area west of New Jersey. The boundaries of the area covered by the grant were poorly defined; during the next 100 years all of the boundaries except the eastern one, the Delaware River, were in dispute. William Markham, Penn's cousin, was made deputy governor and came to Chester in 1681. The next year the area that is now Delaware was added to Pennsylvania. That autumn Governor Penn arrived and the colony, which he called his “Holy Experiment," was organized under the Frame of Government, a constitution he drafted that provided for freedom of religion, universal male suffrage, and an elected assembly. Philadelphia was founded as the capital.
Land in the colony, after being purchased from the Delaware Indians, was offered in Britain and Europe at a low price. Thousands of immigrants came. Chief among them were English Quakers, who settled in the Philadelphia area; German Mennonites and Lutherans, who established farms on the rich land east of the Allegheny Mountains; and, later, the Scotch-Irish, who settled in the valleys of the Alleghenies, then the western frontier.
Colonial Development. The colony thrived, and on Penn's second visit, 1699–1701, the constitution was revised to allow the assembly greater authority and to give the region called the Lower Counties (later to become Delaware) a separate assembly. The Charter of Privileges, as the new constitution was called, remained in effect until 1776. Following Penn's death in 1718, proprietorship of the colony passed in turn to his widow, his sons, and his grandsons.
Pennsylvania's fertile farmlands brought the colony early prosperity. The presence of iron ore encouraged industrial development also. Especially noted among early products were the Kentucky rifle (so called because it was designed for use on the Kentucky frontier) and the Conestoga wagon. Philadelphia, a flourishing commercial center, became the intellectual capital of the colonies.
French and Indian War. The heirs of William Penn did not deal with the Indians as fairly as he had. Colonial officials defrauded Indian tribes in Pennsylvania of vast tracts of land. Also, as in other colonies, constant British encroachment on their lands alienated the Indians. When French and British rivalry in the Ohio Valley flared into the French and Indian War (1754–63), the Indians sided with the French.
The first important action in the war took place in Pennsylvania, near the present site of Pittsburgh, where the French had erected Fort Duquesne. In July, 1755, a force of British and colonial troops under General Edward Braddock and Lieutenant Colonel George Washington marched against the fort and were defeated by the French and Indians. The western settlements were under constant Indian attack until a line of outposts was constructed. Fort Duquesne fell in 1758, and the British erected Fort Pitt at the site.
Fort Pitt was one of the few outposts that withstood attack after the war during the Indian uprising of 1763 known as Pontiac's Rebellion. Grievances with the Indians were resolved in the Fort Stanwix Treaty (1768). In 1769 a survey of Pennsylvania's southern boundary led to the adoption of Mason and Dixon's Line as the border, ending a longstanding dispute with Maryland.
Revolutionary and Early Federal Period
By 1770 Pennsylvania had about 300,000 inhabitants, a thriving economy, and virtual self-government under the Penn proprietorship. Some opposition to British taxation developed, led by John Dickenson. On the whole, however, there was little anti-British agitation in the colony. Philadelphia, nonetheless, as the most centrally located city in the colonies, was chosen for the meeting of the First Continental Congress in 1774, and in effect became capital of the colonies.
In 1776 Pennsylvania delegates signed the Declaration of Independence. Separate delegates signed for the Delaware counties. During the Revolutionary War, many Pennsylvanians, including Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris, gave outstanding service to the patriot cause. Several battles were fought in Pennsylvania in 1777, including Brandywine Creek and Germantown. General George Washington and the troops of the Continental Army spent the winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge. When the British occupied Philadelphia during 1777–78, the Continental Congress met at Lancaster and York. The products of Pennsylvania's farms, factories, and mines made a major contribution to the Revolution's success.
On the western frontier, the Indians again rose against the settlers. In 1778, a British and Indian force massacred the defenders of Forty Fort, in the Wyoming Valley at the site of present-day Wilkes-Barre. (
Meanwhile, in 1776, a convention, presided over by Benjamin Franklin, had produced a state constitution, a radical document that provided for a one-house assembly and a supreme executive council instead of a governor. The constitution was opposed by conservatives, including Dickinson, Morris, James Wilson, and Frederick Muhlenberg. Also in 1776, the Delaware counties adopted their own constitution, becoming a separate state. In 1782 Connecticut ceded its claim to territory in western Pennsylvania, as did Virginia in 1784. The triangular area bordering Lake Erie, at the northwest corner of the state, was purchased from the federal government in 1792, giving the state its present boundaries.
On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania ratified the United States Constitution, the second state to do so. Philadelphia served as the national capital from 1790 to 1800. It also was the financial center of the nation. The Bank of the United States was established there in 1791 and the U.S. Mint in 1792. A new state constitution, adopted in 1790, was written largely by conservatives and provided for a strong governor with extensive appointing powers. In 1794 western Pennsylvania was the scene of a protest by farmers against a federal tax on distilled liquors. ( In 1799 Lancaster became the state capital.
Pennsylvania played an important role in the early decades of the new republic. It was the major industrial state of the nation. Mills, factories, forges, and foundries were constructed. Coal and iron ore began to be mined. Roads, canals, and railroads were built. During the first two decades of the 19th century, population grew from some 600,000 to more than one million, and the western part of the state became more heavily populated. In 1812 Harrisburg was made the capital.
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were the state's economic centers. Both were important ports for local and worldwide commerce. Pittsburgh was called the “Gateway to the West," serving as a departure point for settlers going to the Mississippi Valley.
There was a growing democratic trend in the state, as in the nation. In 1838 a new constitution making government more responsive to the wishes of the people was adopted. The antislavery movement flourished in Pennsylvania, with the Quakers being active in the Underground Railroad, the system that aided runaway slaves to escape to freedom. Antislavery leaders in the state included Thaddeus Stevens and James and Lucretia Mott.
Civil War and After
When the Civil War began in 1861, the state wholeheartedly supported the Union. Some 338,000 men from Pennsylvania served in the Union Army. The state's industrial power and its railroad system contributed significantly to the economic strength of the northern states. Confederate troops entered Pennsylvania three times during the war. Chambersburg was raided in 1862 and 1864. The war's most decisive battle was fought at Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863. (
A period of industrial and commercial expansion followed the Civil War. Development of Pennsylvania's vast coalfields was rapid as the demand for coal, especially by the railways and the iron and steel industry, grew. Large numbers of immigrants from eastern and western Europe came to work in the mines and factories. Petroleum, first discovered by Edwin L. Drake at Titusville in 1859, developed into a valuable resource. Industrial power and wealth became concentrated in the hands of a few men, among them Andrew Carnegie and Charles M. Schwab in the steel industry, Henry Clay Frick in coal mining, and J. Pierpont Morgan and Thomas Mellon in finance.
Labor unionism and labor troubles accompanied the state's industrial growth, as workers sought higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions. The most serious disorders during the nationwide railway strike of 1877 were in Pittsburgh, where workers struck against the powerful Pennsylvania Railroad. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (later the American Federation of Labor) was organized in Pittsburgh in 1881. In 1892 there was a major strike at the Carnegie Steel Company steel mills, with resulting violence at Homestead. Strikes in the anthracite coalfields took place in 1897 and 1902. ( Important leaders in the early labor movement in the state were Terence K. Powderly of the Knights of Labor and John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers.
Meanwhile, in 1889, Pennsylvania had suffered its worst natural disaster—the Johnstown flood, in which more than 2,200 lives were lost. (
Modern Development. Throughout the late 19th and the early 20th century, Pennsylvania was ruled by a Republican machine under bosses Simon and J. Donald Cameron, Matthew S. Quay, and Boies Penrose. The machine was allied with the big steel, oil, and rail interests. In the 1890's, reformist elements in the state began protesting corruption in government and the concentration of economic power. Although some social and political reforms took place during the Progressive era preceding World War I, reform of state government did not begin until after Gifford Pinchot, an associate of President Theodore Roosevelt, was elected governor in 1922. During his two terms in office (1923–27 and 1931–35), he reorganized the state's administration, rooting out corruption and making government more efficient.
Pennsylvania made a significant contribution to the war effort during World War I, with its mines, mills, and men. About 370,000 Pennsylvanians served in the armed forces. Pittsburgh was called the “arsenal of the world" because of its steel production. In the 1920's, however, the steel and coal industries both began to decline. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, unemployment was widespread. The production demands of World War II ended the period of stagnation, bringing full employment and prosperity. The state produced more than 30 per cent of the nation's coal and steel during the war.
In the first years after the war, Pennsylvania suffered a decline in its major industries, chiefly steel and coal, with a resulting loss of jobs. The Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority was created in the late 1950's to recruit new industries and encourage economic expansion. It aided diversification and increased employment. However, the economy remained sluggish in the 1960's and 1970's. Population barely grew in the 1970's, and the state slipped from third to fourth largest in the nation.
In 1979 an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg released radioactive gases into the atmosphere and caused widespread concern about the safety of nuclear power plants.
Pennsylvania's industries suffered during the economic recession of the early 1980's. In the late 1980's, however, increased demand for coal and the growth of the electronics industry and various service industries aided economic recovery. However, the recession of the early 1990's slowed growth, particularly in the industrialized western counties.
By the end of the 1990's, however, the economy of Pennsylvania was healthy after a shift from manufacturing activities to stronger ones such as medical, financial, cultural, and educational institutions; workers were also able to make the shift, improving major metropolitan areas. The creation of heritage parks, which document the roles of various regions in the state's industrial development, created thousands of jobs and even greater finances. This paralleled the state's work to preserve historical sites and both projects contributed to an increase in the tourism industry.