The history of Pennsylvania
begins in 1681 when William Penn received a royal deed
from King Charles II of England, although human activity
in the region precedes that date. The area was home to
the Lenape, Susquehannock, Iroquois, Erie, Shawnee,
Arandiqiouia, and other American Indian tribes. Most of
these tribes were driven off or reduced to remnants as a
result of diseases, such as smallpox, that swept through
long before any permanent colonists arrived.
Pennsylvania was colonized
by Swedish and Dutch settlers in the 17th century,
before the English took control of the colony in 1667.
In 1681, William Penn established a colony based on
religious tolerance; it was settled by many Quakers
along with its chief city Philadelphia, which was also
the first planned city. In the mid-eighteenth century,
the colony attracted many German and Scots-Irish
immigrants.
Pennsylvania played a
central role in the American Revolution, and
Philadelphia served as the nation's capital for a
portion of the 18th century. It was the second most
populous state in the country from the 18th century into
the 20th century, and Philadelphia was the second most
populous city in the nation. Pennsylvania also expanded
its borders into northwestern, northeastern, and
southwestern Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh grew into one
of America's largest and most prominent cities. The
state played an important role in the Union's victory in
the American Civil War. After the war, Pennsylvania grew
into a Republican stronghold and a major manufacturing
and transportation center. After the Great Depression
and World War II, Pennsylvania moved towards the service
industry.
Long-term European
exploration of the Americas commenced after the 1492
expedition of Christopher Columbus, and the 1497
expedition of John Cabot is credited with discovering
continental North America for Europeans. European
exploration of the North America continued in the 16th
century, and the area now known as Pennsylvania was
mapped by the French and labeled L'arcadia, or "wooded
coast", during Giovanni da Verrazzano's voyage in 1524.
Even before large-scale European settlement, the Native
American tribes in Pennsylvania engaged in trade with
Europeans, and the fur trade was a major motivation for
the European colonization of North America. The fur
trade also sparked wars among Native American tribes,
including the Beaver Wars, which saw the Iroquois
Confederacy rise in power. In the 17th century, the
Dutch, Swedish, and British all competed for
southeastern Pennsylvania, while the French expanded
into parts of western Pennsylvania.
In 1638, the Kingdom of
Sweden, then one of the great powers in Europe,
established the colony of New Sweden in the area of the
present-day Mid-Atlantic states. The colony was
established by Peter Minuit, the former governor of New
Netherland, who established the fur trading colony over
the objections of the Dutch. New Sweden extended into
modern-day Pennsylvania, and was centered on the
Delaware River with a capital at Fort Christina (near
Wilmington, Delaware). In 1643, New Sweden Governor
Johan Björnsson Printz established Fort Nya Gothenburg,
the first European settlement in Pennsylvania, on
Tinicum Island. Printz also built his own home, The
Printzhof, on the island.
In 1609, the Dutch Republic,
in the midst of the Dutch Golden Age, commissioned Henry
Hudson to explore North America. Shortly thereafter, the
Dutch established the colony of New Netherland to profit
from the North American fur trade. In 1655, during the
Second Northern War, the Dutch under Peter Stuyvesant
captured the New Sweden. Although Sweden never again
controlled land in the area, several Swedish and Finnish
colonists remained, and with their influence came
America's first log cabins.
The Kingdom of England had
established the Colony of Virginia in 1607 and the
adjacent Colony of Maryland in 1632. England also
claimed the Delaware River watershed based on the
explorations of John Cabot, John Smith, and Francis
Drake. The English named the Delaware River for Thomas
West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, the Governor of Virginia
from 1610 until 1618. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War
(1665–1667), the English took control of the Dutch (and
former Swedish) holdings in North America. At the end of
the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the 1674 Treaty of
Westminster permanently confirmed England's control of
the region.
Following the voyages of
Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier, the French
established a permanent colony in New France in the 17th
century to exploit the North American fur trade. During
the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the French expanded
New France across present day Eastern Canada into the
Great Lakes region, and colonized the areas around the
Mississippi River as well. New France expanded into
western Pennsylvania by the 18th century, as the French
built Fort Duquesne to defend the Ohio River valley.
With the end of the Swedish and Dutch colonies, the
French were the last rivals to the British for control
of the region that would become Pennsylvania. France was
often allied with Spain, the only other remaining
European power with holdings in continental North
America. Beginning in 1688 with King William's War (part
of the Nine Years' War), France and England engaged in a
series of wars for dominance over Northern America. The
wars continued until the end of the French and Indian
War in 1763, when France lost New France.
Pennsylvania's residents
generally supported the protests common to all 13
colonies after the Proclamation of 1763 and the Stamp
Act were passed, and Pennsylvania sent delegates to the
Stamp Act Congress in 1765 Philadelphia hosted the first
and second Continental Congresses, the latter of which
resulted in the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence in Independence Hall in 1776. Pennsylvania
was the site of several battles and military activities
during the American Revolution, including George
Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, the Battle
of Brandywine, and the Battle of Germantown. During the
Philadelphia campaign, the rebel army of George
Washington spent the winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge,
Pennsylvania. In 1781, the Articles of Confederation
were written and adopted in York, Pennsylvania, and
Philadelphia continued to serve as the capital of the
fledgling nation until the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783.
Notable Pennsylvanians who supported the Revolution
include Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Robert
Morris, Anthony Wayne, James Wilson, and Thomas Mifflin.
However, Pennsylvania was also home to numerous
Loyalists, including Joseph Galloway, William Allen, and
the Doan Outlaws.
After elections in May 1776
returned old guard Assemblymen to office, the Second
Continental Congress encouraged Pennsylvania to call
delegates together to discuss a new form of governance.
Delegates met in June in Philadelphia, where events (the
signing of the Declaration of Independence) soon
overtook assemblymen's efforts to control the delegates
and the outcome of their discussions. On July 8
attendees elected delegates to write a state
constitution. A committee was formed with Benjamin
Franklin as chair and George Bryan and James Cannon as
prominent members. The convention proclaimed a new
constitution on September 28, 1776 and called for new
elections.
Elections in 1776 turned the
old assemblymen out of power. But the new constitution
lacked a governor or upper legislative house to provide
checks against popular movements. It also required test
oaths, which kept the opposition from taking office. The
constitution called for a unicameral legislature or
Assembly. Executive authority rested in a Supreme
Executive Council whose members were to be appointed by
the assembly. In elections during 1776, radicals gained
control of the Assembly. By early 1777, they selected an
executive council, and Thomas Wharton, Jr. was named as
the President of the Council. This constitution was
never formally adopted, so government was on an ad-hoc
basis until a new constitution could be written fourteen
years later.
Pennsylvania passed a law
that provided for the gradual abolition of slavery,
making Pennsylvania the first state to pass an act to
abolish slavery (although Vermont had also previously
abolished slavery). Children born after that date to
slave mothers were considered legally free, but they
were bound in indentured servitude to the master of
their mother until the age of 28. The last slave was
recorded in the state in 1847.
Six years after the adoption
of the Articles of Confederation, delegates from across
the country met again at the Philadelphia Convention to
establish a new constitution. Pennsylvania ratified the
U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, and was the
second state to do so after Delaware.
The Constitution took effect
after eleven states had ratified the document in 1788,
and George Washington was inaugurated as the first
President of the United States on March 4, 1789. After
the passage of the Residence Act, Philadelphia again
served as the capital of the nation from 1790-1800,
before the capital was permanently moved to Washington,
D.C. Pennsylvania ratified a new state constitution in
1790; the constitution replaced the executive council
with a governor and a bicameral legislature.
Prior to and during the
Civil War, Pennsylvania was a divided state. Although
Pennsylvania had outlawed slavery, many conservative
Pennsylvanians believed that the federal government
should not interfere with the institution of slavery.
One such individual was Democrat James Buchanan, the
last pre-Civil War president. Buchanan's party had
generally won presidential and gubernatorial elections
in Pennsylvania. However, the nascent Republican Party's
first convention took place in Philadelphia, and the
1860 elections saw the Republican Party win the state's
presidential vote and the governor's office. After the
failure of the Crittenden Compromise, the secession of
the South, and the Battle of Fort Sumter, the Civil War
began with Pennsylvania as a key member of the Union.
Despite the Republican victory the 1860 election,
Democrats remained powerful in the state, and several
"copperheads" called for peace during the war. The
Democrats re-took control of the state legislature in
the 1862 election, but incumbent Republican Governor
Andrew Curtin retained control of the governorship in
1863. In the 1864 election, President Lincoln narrowly
defeated Pennsylvania native George B. McClellan for the
state's electoral votes.
The Gettysburg Campaign,
culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg, a major turning
point in the Civil War. Pennsylvania was the target
of several raids by the Confederate States Army. J.E.B.
Stuart made cavalry raids in 1862 and 1863; John Imboden
raided in 1863 and John McCausland in 1864, when his
troopers burned the city of Chambersburg. However,
easily the most famous and important military engagement
in Pennsylvania was the Battle of Gettysburg, which is
considered by many historians as the major turning point
of the American Civil War. The battle, called "the high
water mark of the Confederacy," was a major union
victory in Eastern theater of the war, and the
Confederacy was generally on the defensive following the
battle. Dead from this battle rest at Gettysburg
National Cemetery, established at the site of Abraham
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. A number of smaller
engagements were also fought in the state during the
Gettysburg Campaign, including the battles of Hanover,
Carlisle, Hunterstown, and the Fairfield.
Pennsylvania's Thaddeus
Stevens and William D. Kelley emerged as leading members
of the Radical Republicans, a group of Republicans that
advocated winning the war, abolishing slavery, and
protecting the civil rights of African-Americans during
Reconstruction. Pennsylvania generals who served in the
war include George G. Meade, Winfield Scott Hancock,
John Hartranft, and John F. Reynolds. Governor Andrew
Curtin strongly supported the war and urged his fellow
governors to do the same, while former Pennsylvania
Senator Simon Cameron served as Secretary of War before
his removal.
The era after the Civil War,
known as the Gilded Age, saw the continued rise of
industry in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was home to some
of the largest steel companies in the world, as Andrew
Carnegie founded the Carnegie Steel Company and Charles
M. Schwab founded the Bethlehem Steel Company. Other
titans of industry, such as John D. Rockefeller and Jay
Gould, also operated in the state. In the latter half of
the 19th century, the U.S. oil industry was born in
western Pennsylvania, which supplied the vast majority
of kerosene for years thereafter. As the Pennsylvanian
oil rush developed, the oil boom towns, such as
Titusville, rose and fell. Coal mining was also a major
industry in the state. In 1903, Milton S. Hershey began
construction on a chocolate factory in Hershey,
Pennsylvania; The Hershey Company would become the
largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. The
Heinz Company was also founded during this period. These
huge companies exercised a large influence on the
politics of Pennsylvania; as Henry Demarest Lloyd put
it, oil baron John D. Rockefeller "had done everything
with the Pennsylvania legislature except refine it."
Pennsylvania created a Department of Highways and
engaged in a vast program of road-building, while
railroads continued to see heavy usage.
Hazleton coal miners in
1900. Coal mining was a major economic activity in
Pennsylvania in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The growth of industry
eventually provided middle-class incomes to
working-class households, after the development of labor
unions helped them gain living wages. However, the rise
of unions led to a rise of union busting, with several
private police forces springing up. Pennsylvania was the
location of the first documented organized strike in
North America, and Pennsylvania experienced the Great
Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Coal Strike of 1902.
Eventually, the eight-hour day was adopted, and the
"coal and iron police" were banned.
During this period, the
United States was the destination of millions of
immigrants. Previous immigration had mostly come from
western and northern Europe, but during this period
Pennsylvania experienced heavy immigration from southern
and eastern Europe. As many new immigrants were Catholic
and Jewish, they changed the demographics of major
cities and industrial areas. Pennsylvania and New York
received many of the new immigrants, who entered through
New York and Philadelphia and worked in the developing
industries. Many of these poor immigrants took jobs in
factories, steel mills, and coal mines throughout the
state, where they were not restricted because of their
lack of English. The availability of jobs and public
education systems helped integrate the millions of
immigrants and their families, who also retained ethnic
cultures. Pennsylvania also experienced the Great
Migration, in which millions of African Americans
migrated from the southern United States to other
locations in the United States. By 1940, African
Americans made up almost five percent of the state's
population.
Parts of
Lycoming County; Attached to Centre County until
1814 and to Lycoming County until 1826 for
judicial and elective purposes. McKean was fully
organized only in 1826.
From
Lycoming county. Attached to Lycoming County until
1826 and to McKean County until 1835 for judicial
purposes, Potter was not fully organized until
1835.
