One of the original 13 colonies, Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn as a refuge for his fellow Quakers. Pennsylvania’s capital, Philadelphia, was the site of the First and Second Continental Congresses in 1774 and 1775, the latter producing the Declaration of Independence, sparking the American Revolution.
After the war, Pennsylvania became the second state, after Delaware, to ratify the US Constitution. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Pennsylvania was the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in which Union General George Meade defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee, ending the invasion of the North by the Confederacy, as well as Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. .
Tourists are drawn to Pennsylvania by its landmarks of American Revolutionary history, including Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Famous Pennsylvanians include patriot and inventor Benjamin Franklin, trailblazer Daniel Boone, painter Mary Cassatt, and inventor Robert Fulton.
The Story of Pennsylvania’s First Colonels
The first English charter to settle the lands of the New World, now known as Pennsylvania, was presented by King Charles II as a means of repaying William Penn, a member of the high society nobility, whose father had lent money to the king before his death. . Penn was a supporter of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, a controversial religion at the time that rejected rituals and oaths and opposed war. Penn wanted to create a refuge for his persecuted friends in the New World and asked the king to grant him land in the territory between the province of Maryland and the province of New York.
On March 4, 1681, King Charles signed the Pennsylvania Charter, and it was officially proclaimed on April 2. The King named the colony after Penn’s father, Admiral Sir Penn. In October 1682, Penn sent a proprietor to Pennsylvania who visited the capital Philadelphia, created the three original counties, and called a general assembly in Chester on December 4.
Native Americans in Pennsylvania
Before Penn obtained land rights to build his colony, King Charles and his heirs purchased the claims of Native Americans who lived in the area. In 1768, all of present-day Pennsylvania, except for the northwestern third, was purchased. Despite a seemingly peaceful transition of the lands, after multiple battles and failed attempts to live harmoniously, many Native Americans in Pennsylvania gradually left and migrated west.
Penn, on behalf of the Quakers, first sought peace with the Lenape, one of the largest Native American tribes that occupied the area. Both groups signed the Treaty of Shackamaxon in 1682 which effectively formalized the purchase of the land and declared peace between the two groups.
The relationship between the natives and settlers deteriorated over the years due to miscommunication, an increase in the number of English settlers coming to Pennsylvania, outward land expansion, the illness and, more specifically, a transfer of power. After his death, Penn gave control of the land to his sons, John and Thomas, who were known to sell portions of the land without the consent of local tribes. Eventually, the colonial authorities called on the Iroquois, another prominent local Native tribe, to help remove the Lenape from the land in 1741. From there, the Lenape traveled to Indiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma before to split into different groups.
Industrialization in Philadelphia
In the late 1800s, Philadelphia was the leader in industrial production, particularly in manufacturing. The city was the largest and most diverse manufacturer of textile weaving in the world, including the weavers of the Quaker Lace Company, the Pennsylvania Woven Carpet Mills, and the New Glen Echo Mills. Cramp Shipyards, a producer of steamships and warships, also helped pave the way for the state’s industrial profile. Cramp Shipyards built the St. Louis, St. Paul, and USS Maine and supplied numerous federal governments with armored warships, including the United States, Turkey, Russia, and Japan.
Powering the industry at this time relied heavily on Pennsylvania’s natural resources. The state has become a major oil refinery and storage center. Reading Terminal has become a hub for locomotive transport and innovation across the country. The terminal often featured Baldwin’s steam locomotives, considered state-of-the-art and manufactured for countries such as Russia, Finland, New Zealand, Brazil and Chile.
Population changes during the 1900s
Pennsylvania’s industry expanded overseas and brought in more people from Germany, the Far East, and South America. More than one million people arrived in Pennsylvania between 1870 and the early 1900s. As in other major cities at the time, immigrants grouped by income and ethnicity. (Neighborhoods such as Southwark, Spring Garden and Northern Liberties had a larger population of Latino residents, many of whom worked as cigar makers and at Baldwin Locomotive Works.)
Foreign-language newspapers and self-help networks sprung up as more immigrants settled in Pennsylvania. Amateur and professional baseball teams, department stores, a new system of free libraries, and theaters also appeared around the same time. (The African-American-run Pythian Baseball Club and the Cuban Giants emerged in the 1860s and 1880s, respectively, around the same time as the Philadelphia Phillies.)
Around the early 1900s, educational opportunities became more readily available through the expansion of colleges and universities. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, added several graduate programs, admitted women and enrolled students of color. Meanwhile, Woman’s Medical College in Pennsylvania brought in African American women from the South and students from India, Japan, and Syria. It was the only college in the world at the time to train female doctors.
Philadelphia: The Cradle of Independence
The “City of Brotherly Love,” as it is known, is where the Continental Congress held its first meeting and where the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address were written. Philadelphia was home to Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Paine, members of the Founding Fathers, and many early American thinkers. The city is also the site of many firsts including the first mass celebrated in an American Catholic church and the first American hospital.
Pennsylvania: The Chocolate State
When Isaac Hershey purchased four plots of land in what is today known as Dauphin County, chocolate had yet to be invented, let alone popularized. But in just a few decades, his great-grandson, Milton Hershey, would become one of the most famous chocolatiers in the world and turn their property into the unofficial chocolate capital of the country.
Milton graduated in 1871 and worked for a printer before beginning an apprenticeship with Joseph R. Royer, a confectioner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After learning the craft, Milton opened his first candy-making and selling business on Garden Street in Philadelphia in 1876. However, the business closed in 1882 and Milton traveled the country to perfect his craft before settling down. to open a location in Lancaster for its third specialty confectionery business. in caramels.
In 1884 Milton made the Hershey Chocolate Company a subsidiary of the already established Lancaster Caramel Company. Soon after, he sold the Lancaster Caramel Company to focus on chocolate manufacturing and opened the first Hershey chocolate factory in his hometown of Derry Township, Pennsylvania. Hershey Chocolate was first marketed on April 17, 1895, and the company began marketing its milk chocolate bars in 1900. The Hershey Chocolate Factory was completed in 1905.
Due to Hershey’s success, Milton was able to fund the town of Hershey and its Hershey Industrial School for orphan boys. At the same time as the business grew and its park was under construction, the town of Hershey prospered with its own post office, fire department, bank, hotel, public school, churches, parks and its golf courses.
Today, the Hershey name adorns many buildings in the town known for its chocolate factory, hotel and theme park as well as its community and cultural and educational institutions.
State creation date: December 12, 1787
Capital city: Harrisburg
Population: 12,702,379 (2010)
Cut: 46,055 square miles
Nickname(s): keystone state
Currency: Virtue, Liberty and Independence
Tree: Hemlock
Flower: mountain laurel
Bird: crested grouse
Interesting facts
- Named by Governor William Penn after he arrived in the New World in 1682, Philadelphia combined the Greek words for love (phileo) and brother (adelphos), spawning its nickname “the city of brotherly love”.
- Although born in Boston, Philadelphia claims Ben Franklin as one of its sons as the famous statesman, scientist, writer and inventor moved to the city at the age of 17. Responsible for many civic improvements, Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731 and organized the Union Fire Company in 1736.
- On September 18, 1777, fearing that the approaching British army would seize and melt down the Liberty Bell for munitions, 200 horsemen carried the iconic symbol of liberty by caravan from the Philadelphia State House to the basement of the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, where he remained until the British finally left in June 1778.
- Now the largest city in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital from 1790 until a permanent capital was established in Washington, D.C., in 1800. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed in Philadelphia.
- In July 1952, Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine from the virus killed at the University of Pittsburgh. First tested on himself and his family, the vaccine was made available nationwide a few years later. The vaccine reduced the number of poliomyelitis cases from nearly 29,000 in 1955 to less than 6,000 in 1957.
- In 1903, the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates faced off in the first official Major League Baseball World Series at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. In the best-of-nine series, Boston won five games to three.
- The worst nuclear accident in US history occurred on March 28, 1979 at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg. Caused by a series of system malfunctions and human errors, the plant’s nuclear reactor core partially melted and thousands of residents were evacuated or fled the area, fearing exposure to radiation.
- William Penn originally requested that his land grant be named “Sylvania”, Latin for “wood”. Charles II instead named it “Pennsylvania”, after Penn’s father, which caused Penn to fear that the colonists believed he named it after himself.
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