ML080220443
ML080220443 | |
Person / Time | |
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Site: | Susquehanna ![]() |
Issue date: | 01/18/2008 |
From: | State of PA, Historical & Museum Commission |
To: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
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Download: ML080220443 (31) | |
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.rrniV1%', reiniSy1Vdaina riiSiur'y aeiuo ragc I ()I U Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission lome Programs & Events Research Historic Sites & Museums Records Management About Us Historic Preservation Pennsylvania State Archives PENNSYLVANIA STATE CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information HISTO RY Doc Heritage Digital Archives (ARIAS)ExplorePAhistory.com Land Records THE QUAKER PROVINCE:
1681-1776 Genealogy Pennsylvania History .(People, Places, Events)Record Holdings Y Scholars in Residence Pennsylvania History Day The Founding of Pennsylvania William Penn and the Quakers Penn was born in London on October 24, 1644, the son of Admiral Sir William Penn. Despite high social position and an excellent education, he shocked his upper-class associates by his conversion to the beliefs of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, then a persecuted sect. He used his inherited wealth and rank to benefit and protect his fellow believers.
Despite the unpopularity of his religion, he was socially acceptable in the king's court because he was trusted by the Duke of York, later King James II. The origins of the Society of Friends lie in the intense religious ferment of 17th century England. George Fox, the son of a Leicestershire weaver, is credited with founding it in 1647, though there was no definite organization before 1668. The Society's rejections of rituals and oaths, its opposition to war, and its simplicity of speech and dress soon attracted attention, usually hostile.The Charter King Charles II owed William Penn £16,000, money which Admiral Penn had lent him. Seeking a haven in the New World for persecuted Friends, Penn asked the King to'grant him land in the territory between Lord Baltimore's province of Maryland and the Duke of York's province of New York. With the Duke's support, Penn's petition was granted. The King signed the Charter of Pennsylvania on March 4, 1681, and it was officially proclaimed on April 2. The King named the new colony in honor of William Penn's father. It was to include the land between the 39th and 42nd degrees of north latitude and from the Delaware River westward for five degrees of longitude.
Other provisions assured its people the protection of English laws and kept it subject to the government in England to a certain degree. Provincial laws could be annulled by the King. In 1682, the Duke of York deeded to Penn his claim to the three lower counties on the Delaware, which are now the state of Delaware.1 /1 QI /) Q rrniVi'-:
rCeiuiSY1Vdiiia ru1SwL0y rg]rage 4 L)i U The New Colony In April 1681, Penn made his cousin William Markham deputy governor of the province and sent him to take control. In England, Penn drew up the First Frame of Government, his proposed constitution for Pennsylvania.
Penn's preface to First Frame of Government has become famous as a summation of his governmental ideals. Later, in October 1682, the Proprietor arrived in Pennsylvania on the ship Welcome. He visited Philadelphia, just laid out as the capital city, created the three original counties, and summoned a General Assembly to Chester on December 4. This first Assembly united the Delaware counties with Pennsylvania, adopted a naturalization act and, on December 7, adopted the Great Law, a humanitarian code which became the fundamental basis of Pennsylvania law and which guaranteed liberty of conscience.
The second Assembly, in 1683, reviewed and amended Penn's First Frame with his cooperation and created the Second Frame of Government.
By the time of Penn's return to England late in 1684, the foundations of the Quaker Province were well established.
In 1984, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn were made the third and fourth honorary citizens of the United States, by act of Congress.
On May 8, 1985, the Penns were granted honorary citizenship of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Population and Immigration Indians Although William Penn was granted all the land in Pennsylvania by the King, he and his heirs chose not to grant or settle any part of it without first buying the claims of Indians who lived there. In this manner, all of Pennsylvania except the northwestern third was purchased by 1768. The Commonwealth bought the Six Nations' claims to the remainder of the land in 1784 and 1789, and the claims of the Delawares and Wyandots in 1785. The-defeat of the French and Indian War alliance by 1760, the withdrawal of the French, the crushing of Chief Pontiac's Indian alliance in 1764, and the failure of all attempts by Indians and colonists to live side by side led the Irndians to migrate westward, gradually leaving Pennsylvania.
English English Quakers were the dominant element, although many English settlers were Anglican.
The English settled heavily in the southeastern counties, which soon lost frontier characteristics and became the center of a thriving agricultural and commercial society. Philadelphia became the metropolis of the British colonies and a center of intellectual and commercial life.Germans Thousands of Germans were also attracted to the colony and, by the time of the Revolution, comprised a third of the population.
The volume of German immigration increased after 1727, coming largely I1 1Q/,)((Q rni1Vi%_, reiuisy iv ama n iiu r yag u i ragu J 01 0 from the Rhineland.
The Pennsylvania Germans settled most heavily in the interior counties of Northampton, Berks, Lancaster and Lehigh, and neighboring areas. Their skill and industry transformed this region into a rich farming country, contributing greatly to the expanding prosperity of the province.Scotch-Irish Another important immigrant group was the Scotch-Irish, who migrated from about 1717 until the Revolution in a series of waves caused by hardships in Ireland. They were primarily frontiersmen, pushing first into the Cumberland Valley region and then farther into central and western Pennsylvania.
They, with immigrants from old Scotland, numbered about one-fourth of the population by 1776.African Americans Despite Quaker opposition to slavery, about 4,000 slaves were brought to Pennsylvania by 1730, most of them owned by English, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish colonists.
The census of 1790 showed that the number of African-Americans had increased to about 10,000, of whom about 6,300 had received their freedom. The Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 was the first emancipation statute in the United States.Others Many Quakers were Irish and Welsh, and they settled in the area immediately outside of Philadelphia.
French Huguenot and Jewish settlers, together with Dutch, Swedes, and other groups, contributed in smaller numbers to the development of colonial Pennsylvania.
The mixture of various national groups in the Quaker Province helped to create its broad-minded tolerance and cosmopolitan outlook.Politics Pennsylvania's political history ran a rocky course during the provincial 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. A popular party led by David Lloyd demanded greater powers for the Assembly, and in 1696 Markham's Frame of Government granted some of these. In December 1699, the Proprietor again visited Pennsylvania and, just before his return to England in 1701, 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.
Deputy or lieutenant governors (addressed as "governor")
resided in Pennsylvania and represented the Penn family proprietors who remained themselves in England until 1773. After 1763, these governors were members of the Penn family. From 1773 until independence, John Penn was both a proprietor and the governor.
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 proprietors' prerogatives battered themselves against the rock of an Assembly vigilant in the defense of its own 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 controversies prepared the people for their part in the Revolution.
1 /1 QI')ri)Q rrnivn%- reiUiSY1VUiiia r1SIiswy rg +0 rage + 01 0 The Colonial Wars As part of the British Empire, Pennsylvania was involved in the wars between Great Britain and France for dominance in North America.These wars ended the long period when Pennsylvania was virtually without defense. The government built forts and furnished men and supplies to help defend the empire to which it belonged.
The territory claimed for New France included western Pennsylvania.
The Longueuil and Celoron expeditions of the French in 1739 and 1749 traversed this region, and French traders competed with Pennsylvanians for Indian trade. The French efforts in 1753 and 1754 to establish control over the upper Ohio Valley led to the last and conclusive colonial war, the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
French forts at Erie (Fort Presque Isle), Waterford (Fort LeBoeuf), 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, Colonel Henry Bouquet defeated them at Bushy Run, ending the threat to the frontier in this region.Economics Agriculture From its beginning, Pennsylvania ranked as a leading agricultural area and produced surpluses for export, adding to its wealth. By the 1750s, an exceptionally prosperous farming area had developed in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Wheat and corn were the leading crops, though rye, hemp, and flax were also important.
Manufacturing The abundant natural resources of the colony made for early development of industries.
Arts and crafts, as well as home manufactures, grew rapidly. Sawmills and gristmills were usually the first to appear, using the power of the numerous streams. Textile products were spun and woven mainly in the home, though factory production was not unknown. Shipbuilding became important on the Delaware.
The province early gained importance in iron manufacture, producing pig iron as well as finished products.
Printing, publishing, and the related industry of papermaking, as well as tanning, were significant industries.
The Pennsylvania long rifle was an adaptation of a German hunting rifle developed in Lancaster County. Its superiority was so recognized that by 1776 gunsmiths were duplicating it in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and Maryland.
The Conestoga wagon was also developed in Lancaster County. Capable of carrying as much as four tons, it was the prototype for the principal vehicle for American westward migration, the prairie schooner.Commerce and Transportation The rivers were important as early arteries of commerce and were soon supplemented by roads in the southeastern area. Stagecoach lines by 1776 reached from Philadelphia into the southcentral region.Trade with the Indians for furs was important in the colonial period.1 /1 Ql/O OQ rrniVi'-,:
reUiHSYiVd11 amanm iuyrge ' l rage -) 01 0 Later, the transport and sale of farm products to Philadelphia and Baltimore, by water and road, formed an important business.Philadelphia became one of the most important centers in the colonies for the conduct of foreign trade and the commercial metropolis of an expanding hinterland.
By 1776, the province's imports and exports were worth several million dollars.Society and Culture The Arts and Learning Philadelphia was known in colonial times as the "Athens of America" because of its rich cultural life. Because of the liberality of Penn's principles and the freedom of expression that prevailed, the province was noted for the variety and strength of its intellectual and educational institutions and interests.
An academy which held its first classes in 1740 became the College of Philadelphia in 1755, and ultimately grew into the University of Pennsylvania.
It was the only nondenominational college of the colonial period. The arts and sciences flourished, and the public buildings of Philadelphia were the marvel of the colonies.
Many fine old buildings in the Philadelphia area still bear witness to the richness of Pennsylvania's civilization in the 18th century. Such men of intellect as Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, John Bartram, and Benjamin West achieved international renown. Newspapers and magazines flourished, as did law and medicine.
Pennsylvania can claim America's first hospital, first library, and first insurance company.Religion Quakers held their first meeting at Upland (now Chester) in 1675, and came to Pennsylvania in great numbers after William Penn received his Charter. Most numerous in the southeastern counties, the Quakers gradually declined in number but retained considerable influence.
The Pennsylvania Germans belonged largely to the Lutheran and Reformed churches, but there were also several smaller sects: Mennonites, Amish, German Baptist Brethren or "Dunkers," Schwenkfelders, and Moravians.
Although the Lutheran Church was established by the Swedes on Tinicum Island in 1643, it only began its growth to become the largest of the Protestant denominations in Pennsylvania upon the arrival of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg in 1742. The Reformed Church owed its expansion to Michael Schlatter, who arrived in 1746. The Moravians did notable missionary work among the Indians. The Church of Eng land held services in Philadelphia as early as 1695. The first Catholic congregation was organized in Philadelphia in 1720, and the first chapel was erected in 1733; Pennsylvania had the second largest Catholic population among the colonies.
The Scotch brought Presbyterianism; its first congregation was organized in Philadelphia in 1698. Scotch-Irish immigrants swelled its numbers. Methodism began late in the colonial period. St. George's Church, built in Philadelphia in 1769, is the oldest Methodist building in America. There was a significant Jewish population in colonial Pennsylvania.
Its Mikveh Israel Congregation was established in Philadelphia in 1740.Pennsylvania on the Eve of the Revolution 1 11 Q/1I') Q rriIVA,: rCiUiSYiVd111d n i suryagLu i rage U 01 U By 1776, the Province of Pennsylvania had become the third largest English colony 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 only three counties:
Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks. By 1773, there were 11. Westmoreland, the last new county created before the Revolution, was the first county located entirely west of the Allegheny Mountains.
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 in opposition to the Intolerable Acts, in 1774.I, ttn.- /_- IIyg ,wy -I-hrMr --, n tnc n ,- A, /1, -/In1' ,t Mn / l, o , n -9 C' -Al A2 1 ilQ'fI~1 /1 Q rrllVlk-:
rC1I1ISy1VdI11L1 r11SLVI'y rage 1 01 IV H Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission lome Programs & Events Research Historic Sites & Museums Records Management About Us Historic Preservation r Pennsylvania State Archives PENNSYLVANIA STATE CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information HISTO RY Doc Heritage Digital Archives (ARIAS)ExplorePAhistory.'com INDEPENDENCE TO THE CIVIL WAR: Land Records 1776-1861 Genealogy Pennsylvania History (People, Places, Events)(People Hlaces, EPennsylvania in the Revolution Record Holdings Scholars in Residence Pennsylvania History Day 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 meeting place for the men concerned with building a nation.The Declaration of Independence The movement to defend American rights grew into the movement for independence in the meetings of the Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall and the State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.
The spirit of independence ran high, as shown by spontaneous declarations of frontiersmen in the western areas and by the political events which displaced the old provincial government.
The War for Independence Pennsylvania troops took part in almost all the campaigns of the Revolution.
A rifle battalion joined in the siege of Boston in August 1775. Others fought bravely in the ill-fated Canadian campaign of 1776 and in 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. The battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Whitemarsh were important engagements of this period. Following these battles, Washington went into winter quarters at Valley Forge from December 1777 to June 1778. News of the French alliance, which Benjamin Franklin had helped to negotiate, and the adoption of new strategy caused the British to leave Philadelphia in the spring of 1778. Frontier Pennsylvania suffered heavily from British and Indian raids until they were answered in 1779 by John Sullivan's and Daniel Brodhead's expeditions against the Six Nations Indians.The Arsenal of Independence The products of Pennsylvania farms, factories, and mines were essential to the success of the Revolutionary armies. At Carlisle a Continental ordnance arsenal turned out cannons, swords, pikes, and I, f+_. //--- -I,-- ýt ý+_ --ý /ký], /-1, -f /- 'A 4-11 I/ 11 Q/ U)( Q rnilVi'-:
rrIHISyi V Ula1 x-IlSwLVy rg i r'agtu /_ wl IV muskets. The state actively encouraged the manufacture of gunpowder.
Pennsylvania's financial support, both from its government and from individuals, was of great importance.
By 1780, the state had contributed more than $6 million to the Congress and, when the American states had reached financial exhaustion, 90 Philadelphians subscribed a loan of £300,000 to supply the army.Later, in 1782, the Bank of North America was chartered to support government fiscal needs. Robert Morris and Haym Salomon were important financial supporters of the Revolution.
Founding a Commonwealth A Pennsylvania Revolution 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.The Constitution of 1776 The convention superseded the old government completely, established a Council of Safety to rule in the interim, and drew up the first state constitution, adopted on September 28, 1776. This provided an assembly of one house and a supreme executive council instead of a governor.
The Declaration of Rights section has been copied in subsequent constitutions without significant change.Many patriot leaders were bitterly opposed to the new Pennsylvania constitution.
Led by such men as John Dickinson, James Wilson, Robert Morris, and Frederick Muhlenberg, they carried on a long fight with the Constitutional party, a radical group. Joseph Reed, George Bryan, William Findley, and other radicals governed Pennsylvania until 1790. Their most noteworthy accomplishments were the act for the gradual abolition of slavery (1780) and an act of 1779 which took over the public lands owned by the Penn family (but allowed them some compensation in recognition of the services of the founder).The conservatives gradually gained more strength, helped by the Constitutionalists' poor financial administration.
The Constitution of 1790 By 1789, the conservatives felt strong-enough to rewrite the state constitution, and the Assembly called a convention to meet in November.
In the convention, both the conservative majority and the radical minority showed a tendency to compromise and to settle their differences along moderate lines. As a result, the new constitution embodied the best ideas of both parties and was adopted with little objection.
It provided for a second legislative house, the State Senate, and for a strong governor with extensive appointing powers.Founding a Nation Pennsylvania and the United States Constitution I/ 1 Q/1)AAQ rriiV1'-,;
rCeiuiSY1Vaiiia nl1SwLOy ae30I rage ) ol IV Because of a lack of central power, as well as financial difficulties, the Articles of Confederation could no longer bind together the newly independent states. As a result, the Federal Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787. The structure that evolved remains the basis of our government today.The Pennsylvania Assembly sent eight delegates to the Federal Convention.
Four of these had been signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The delegation included the venerable Benjamin Franklin, whose counsels of moderation on several occasions kept the convention from dissolving; the brilliant Gouverneur Morris, who spoke more often than any other member; and the able lawyer James Wilson, who, next to Madison of Virginia, was the principal architect of the Constitution.
Pennsylvania's delegation supported every move to strengthen the national government and signed the finished Constitution on September
- 17. The conservatives in the Pennsylvania Assembly took swift action to call a ratifying convention, which met in Philadelphia on November 21. The Federalists, favoring ratification, elected a majority of delegates and, led by Wilson, made Pennsylvania the second state to ratify, on December 12, 1787.Population and Immigration Large areas of the northern and western parts of the state were undistributed or undeveloped in 1790, and many other sections were thinly populated.
The state adopted generous land policies, distributed free"Donation Lands" to Revolutionary veterans and offered other lands at reasonable prices to actual settlers.
Conflicting methods of land distribution and the activities of land companies and of unduly optimistic speculators caused much legal confusion.
By 1860, with the possible exception of the northern tier counties, population was scattered throughout the state. There was increased urbanization, although rural life remained strong and agriculture involved large numbers of people. The immigrant tide swelled because of large numbers of Irish fleeing the potato famine of the late 1840s and Germans fleeing the political turbulence of their homeland about the same time. As a result of the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1780, the 3,737 African American slave population of 1790 dropped to 64 by 1840, and by 1850 all Pennsylvania African Americans were free unless they were fugitives from the South. The African American community had 6,500 free people in 1790, rising to 57,000 in 1860. Philadelphia was their population and cultural center.Political Developments Reaction Against the Federalist Party From 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia was the capital of the United States.While Washington was president, the state supported the Federalist Party, but grew gradually suspicious of its aristocratic goals. From the beginning, Senator William Maclay of Pennsylvania was an outspoken critic of the party. When Thomas Jefferson organized the Democrat-Republican Party, he had many supporters in Pennsylvania.
Thomas Mifflin, Pennsylvania's first governor under the Constitution of 1790, was a moderate who avoided commitment to any party but leaned toward the Jeffersonians.
The Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania in 1794 hastened the reaction against the Federalists and provided a test of national unity. The insurrection was suppressed by an army assembled at Carlisle and Fort Cumberland
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rCIIIISY1VdI11U rIISLVI'y rage,'+ 01 IV and headed by President Washington.
Partly as a result, Jefferson drew more votes than Adams in Pennsylvania in the presidential election in 1796. It was a foreboding sign for the Federalists, who were defeated in the national election of 1800.Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democratic Dominance In 1799, Mifflin was succeeded by Thomas McKean, a conservative Jeffersonian Democrat-Republican, who governed until 1808.McKean's opposition to measures advocated by the liberal element in his party led to a split in its ranks and an unsuccessful attempt to impeach him. His successor, Simon Snyder of Selinsgrove, represented the liberal wing. Snyder, who served three terms until 1817, was the first governor to come from common, nonaristocratic origins. In this period, the capital was transferred from Philadelphia to Lancaster in 1799 and finally to Harrisburg in 1812. During the War of 1812, Pennsylvanians General Jacob Brown and Commodore Stephen Decatur were major military leaders. Stephen Girard, Albert Gallatin, and Alexander James Dallas helped organize national war finances, and Gallatin served as peace commissioner at Ghent. Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet, which won the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, was built at Erie by Daniel Dobbins, a native Pennsylvanian.
Today, the Historical and Museum Commission has extensively restored Perry's flagship, the U.S.S. Niagara, which may be appreciated by the public when visiting Erie. In 1820, a coalition of Federalists and conservative Democrats elected Joseph Hiester, whose non-partisan approach reformed government but destroyed his own coalition.
The election of 1820 marked the end of the use of caucuses to select candidates and the triumph of the open conventions system. The Family Party Democrats elected the two succeeding governors, John Andrew Shulze and George Wolf (1823-1834), who launched the progressive but very costly Public Works system of state built canals.Attitudes toward President Andrew Jackson and his policies, especially that concerning the Second Bank of the United States, altered political alignments in Pennsylvania during this period. In 1834, Gov. Wolf signed the Free School Act which alienated many, including Pennsylvania Germans, so that the Democrats lost the next governorship to the Anti-Masonic Joseph Ritner who was supported by the Whig P arty. In a dramatic speech, Thaddeus Stevens persuaded the Assembly not to repeal the Free School Law. But the Masonic investigations in the Assembly which followed were ludicrous, and the Democrat David R. Porter received 5,000 more votes than Ritner in the 1838 election.
Ritner's followers claimed fraud, and violence nearly erupted in the "Buckshot War," until several of Ritner's legislative followers bolted and placed Porter in office.The Constitution of 1838 In 1837, a convention was called to revise the state's laws and draft a new constitution.
The resulting constitution, in 1838, reduced the governor's appointive power, increased the number of elective offices and shortened terms of office. The voters were given a greater voice in government and were better protected from abuses of power.However, free African Americans were disenfranchised.
The burning of Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia, a center for many reform activities, in the same year, showed that the new constitution coincided with an awakened hostility toward abolition and racial equality.-I,-- -/-4 1 ; A -11 IlI QI/'1)f Q rr11VB-. rC1111SY1VU111d f11hLV1'Y raugu 3 01 IV Shifting Tides Following the adoption of the new constitution in 1838, six governors followed in succession prior to the Civil War, two of whom were Whigs. State debts incurred for internal improvements, such as the canal system, almost bankrupted the state, -until the Public Works were finally sold. The search for a sound banking and currency policy and the rising political career of James Buchanan dominated this period. It was marred by the tragic religious riots of the Native American Association at Kensington in 1844.The annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico which ensued in 1846 were generally supported in Pennsylvania.
More men enlisted than could be accepted by the armed forces, but many Pennsylvanians were opposed to any expansion of slavery into the territory taken from Mexico. David Wilmot of Bradford County became a national figure in 1846 by his presentation in Congress of the Wilmot Proviso opposing slavery's extension, and his action was supported almost unanimously by the Pennsylvania Assembly.Pennsylvania and the Antislavery Movement The Quakers were the first group to express organized opposition to slavery. Slavery slowly disappeared in Pennsylvania under the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1780, but nationally the issue of slavery became acute after 1820. Many Pennsylvanians were averse 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 United States Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional in 1842. The state forbade the use of its jails to detain fugitive African Americans in 1847. The Compromise of 1850, a national program intended to quiet the agitation over slavery, imposed a new Federal Fugitive Slave Law, but citizens in Christiana, Lancaster County, rioted in 1851 to prevent the law from being implemented.
Opposition to slavery and the desire for a high tariff led to the rise of the new Republican Party in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Democrat James Buchanan was elected President because of a deadlock over the slavery issue among the other major politicians, and he then announced a policy of noninterference with slavery in the states and popular sovereignty in the federal territories Because of controversy over the admission of Kansas as a state, Buchanan lost support of most Northern Democrats, and disruption within the Democratic Party made possible Abraham Lincoln's election to the Presidency in 1860. Civil War followed.
The expression"underground railroad" may have originated in Pennsylvania, where numerous citizens aided the escape of slaves to freedom in Canada.Anna Dickinson, Lucretia Mott, Ann Preston, and Jane Swisshelm were among Pennsylvania women who led the antislavery cause.Thaddeus Stevens was an uncompromising foe of slavery in Congress after he was reelected to the House of Representatives in 1859.Pennsylvania abolitionist leaders were both African American and white. African American leaders included those who made political appeals, like James Forten and Robert Purvis; underground railroad workers Robert Porter and William Still; publication activist John B.Vashon and his son George; and the organizer of the Christiana Riot of 1851 against fugitive slave hunters, William Parker.African Americans made some cultural advances during this period.William Whipper organized reading rooms in Philadelphia.
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reuiulyivaiiiu ni~lsty rge0ui ragr ) 01 1 V 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 first African American church in Pittsburgh (A.M.E.) was founded in 1822.Women Courageous individual women worked not only for their own cause but also for other reforms, although the status of the whole female population changed little during this period. Catherine Smith, for example, manufactured musket barrels for the Revolutionary Army, and the mythical battle heroine Molly Pitcher was probably also a Pennsylvanian.
Sara Franklin Bache and Ester De Berdt Reed organized a group of 2,200 Pennsylvania women to collect money, buy cloth, and sew clothing for Revolutionary soldiers.
Lucretia Mott, a Quaker preacher and teacher, was one of four women to participate at the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1833, and became president of the Female Anti-Slavery Society.With Elizabeth Cady Stanton she launched the campaign for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Jane Grey Swisshelm, abolitionist, and advocate of women's rights, used newspapers and lectures.
In 1848, she launched her abolitionist paper, The Saturday Visiter, which featured antislavery propaganda and women's rights.Her essays influenced the state legislature to grant married women the right to own property, in 1848.Disruption of the Democracy The political winds began to shift due to the Southern domination of the Democratic Party, rising abolition sentiment, and a desire to promote Pennsylvania's growing industries by raising tariffs. In 1856, Pennsylvania took the lead in the organization of the new Republican Party, with former Democratic leader Simon Cameron throwing his support to the new party. Congressmen David Wilmot and Galusha Grow typified the national statesmanship of Pennsylvania in this period. However, the Democratic candidate James Buchanan was elected president, the only native Pennsylvanian ever to hold the position.
In 1860, the Republicans emerged as the dominant party in the state and nation with the elections of Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin and President Abraham Lincoln.Industry By 1861, the factory system had largely replaced the domestic system of home manufacture, and the foundation of the state's industrial greatness was established.
The change was most noticeable after 1840 because of a shift to machinery and factories in the textile industry.
By 1860, there were more than 200 textile mills. Leathermaking, lumbering, shipbuilding, publishing, and tobacco and paper manufacture also prospered in the 1800s.Pennsylvania's outstanding industrial achievements were in iron and steel.Its production of iron was notable even in colonial times, and the charcoal furnaces of the state spread into the Juniata and western regions during the mid-1800s.
Foundries, rolling mills, and machine shops became numerous and, by the Civil War, the state rolled about half the nation's iron, aiding the development of railroads.
The Baldwin Works were established in Philadelphia in 1842, and the Bethlehem Company was organized in 1862.The Cambria Works at Johnstown were established in 1854 and, by the end of the Civil War, were the largest' mills in the country. William Kelly, a native of Pittsburgh, is regarded as the inventor of the Bessemer process of making 1, f t- -//- --, -1, --ý4- ý f --, ý ý /ký 1, /-1, ; ý f /_; ý ;I n -')ý __; '4_1 1 1/1 Q I/IAQ IrrniVi'-:
reiniSYiVU1nia nIISUi'y rg i ragu / 01 1ki steel.Although much importance is given to the discovery of gold in California, the discovery and development of Pennsylvania's mineral and energy resources far overshadowed that event. Cornwall, in Lebanon County, provided iron ore from colonial times, and ore was also found in many other sections of Pennsylvania in which the charcoal iron industry flourished.
The use of anthracite coal began on a large scale after 1820 with the organization of important mining companies.
Labor After the Revolution, the use of indentured servants sharply declined.The growth of industrial factories up to 1860, however, enlarged the gulf between skilled and unskilled labor, and immigrants were as much subordinated by this as they had been under indenture.
Local, specialized labor unions had brief successes, especially in Philadelphia where in 1845 a city ordinance placed a ten-hour limit on the laborer's day. The state's mechanics' lien law of 1854 was another victory for the rights of labor.Transportation Roads The settlement of new regions of the state was accompanied by provisions for new roads. The original Lancaster Pike connecting Philadelphia with Lancaster was completed in 1794. By 1832, the state led the nation in improved roads, having more than 3,000 miles. The National or Cumberland Road was a major route for western movement before 1850. Between 1811 and 1818, the section of this road in Pennsylvania was built through Somerset, Fayette, and Washington Counties.
It is now Route 40.Waterways Most of the state's 7 77 ýmajor cities were built along important river routes. In the 1790s, the state made extensive studies for improving the navigation of all major streams, and canals began to supplement natural waterways.
Canals extending the use of the Delaware t " <'*'7 and Schuylkill Rivers L 0,, -L , .I i , were chartered before 1815, and the Lehigh Canal was completed in 1838. The vast system named the State Works of Pennsylvania soon overshadowed privately constructed canals. The system linked the east and the west by 1834, but the expense nearly made the state financially insolvent.
The benefits to the economic progress of distant regions, however, provided ample justification for the high cost.I1l Q/I')(YQ rriiVu..:
reiuiSY1V11 rvam ISUioy rg 11 ragr 0 u1 iui Although canals declined rapidly with the advent of the railroad, Pennsylvania's ports and waterways remained active. The steamboat originated with experiments by John Fitch of Philadelphia from 1787 to 1790, and Lancaster County native Robert Fulton established it as a practical medium of transportation on the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela Rivers.Railroads Rail transport began in 1827, operated at first K by horse power ~ >'or cables. It was called the ii"Mauch Chunk r'Gravity," later 4 known as "The Switch Back".The tracks connected anthracite fields with canals or rivers. The Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad, completed in 1834 as part of the State Works, was the first ever built by a government.
Pennsylvania's first railroad built as a common carrier was the Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown Railroad, completed in 1835.Major railroads chartered in the state included the Philadelphia and Reading (1833) and the Lehigh Valley (1846, reincorporated 1853).However, the most important of all was the Pennsylvania Railroad, chartered April 13, 1846, and completed to Pittsburgh by 1852. It absorbed so many short railroad lines by 1860 that it had nearly a monopoly on rail traffic from Chicago through Pennsylvania.
And whereas Pennsylvania had reached its maximum of 954 canal miles by 1840, total railroad trackage grew by 1860 to 2,598 miles. In miles of rail and in total capital invested in railroads, Pennsylvania led all other states on the eve of the Civil War.Culture Education The Constitution of 1790 provided the basis for a public system of education, and several acts were passed for that purpose. It was not until the Free School Act of 1834, however, that a genuinely democratic system of public schools was initiated.
By 1865, the number of public schools had quadrupled.
In 1852, a state association of teachers was organized.
Five years later the Normal School Act was passed, and a separate government department was created for the supervision of schools. These were significant advances in social organization.
Numerous private schools supplemented the public system. There also was a rapid development of academies, corresponding to modern high schools. Many 1 i/l Q/)rQ rrniVRt-;
rCeiuiSYiVUaiii fitlSly rg 11 ragu Y 01 lu academies received public aid.Science The traditions of scientific inquiry established in Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, and the Bartrams continued.
The American Philosophical Society was the first of many organizations founded in Philadelphia to encourage scientific work.The Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1812 and the Franklin Institute in 1824. The American Association of Geologists, formed in Philadelphia in 1840, later grew into the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The scientific leadership of Pennsylvania was represented by many individuals of whom only a few can be named James Woodhouse (1770-1809) pioneered in chemical analysis, plant chemistry, and the scientific study of industrial processes.
Isaac Hayes (1796-1879) of Philadelphia pioneered in the study of astigmatism and color blindness.
The Moravian clergyman Lewis David von Schweinitz (1780-1834) made great contributions to botany, discovering more than 1,200 species of fungi.Literature and the Arts Charles Brockden Brown of Philadelphia was the first American novelist of distinction and the first to follow a purely literary career.Hugh Henry Brackenridge of Pittsburgh gave the American West its first literary work in his satire Modern Chivalry.
Philadelphia continued as an important center for printing with J. B. Lippincott taking the lead and, for magazines, with the publication of the Saturday Evening Post. Bayard Taylor, who began his literary career before the Civil War, published his most notable work in 1870-71 the famous translation of Goethe's Faust.In architecture, the red brick construction of southeastern Pennsylvania was supplemented by buildings in the Greek Revival style. The New England influence was strong in the domestic architecture of the northern tier counties.
Thomas U. Walter and William Strickland gave Pennsylvania an important place in the architectural history of the early 1800s. Walter designed the Treasury Building and the Capitol dome in Washington.
The nation's first institution of art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, was founded in Philadelphia in 1805, although by then, such painters as Gilbert Stuart, Benjamin West, and the Peale family had already made Philadelphia famous.Philadelphia was the theatrical center of America until 1830, a leader in music publishing and piano manufacture, and the birthplace of American opera. William Henry Fry's Lenora (1845) was probably the first publicly performed opera by an American composer.
Stephen Foster became the songwriter for the nation.Religion In the years between independence and the Civil War, religion flourished in the Commonwealth.
In addition to the growth of worship, religion led the way to enlargement of the educational system. In this period, churches threw off European ties and established governing bodies in the United States. In 1789, John Carroll of Maryland became the first Catholic bishop in America. In 1820, the establishment of a national Lutheran synod was the last of I, tf-- //- --, -I,-- ýf ýf- --/1-1, /- I, -f /-;ý -1 1 1i/1 QI')Clf)Q I-MV11-: 1-01111SYlVallia rIISLUIY rage IV 01 iV the breaks from Europe by a major Protestant denomination.
Some new churches were formed: Jacob AIbright formed the Evangelical Association, a Pennsylvania German parallel to Methodism; Richard Allen formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816; and John Winebrenner founded the Church of God in Harrisburg in 1830.Isaac Leeser, who founded Conservative Judaism in America, did most of his important writing in Philadelphia in this period.Presbyterianism, which was the largest Protestant denomination before 1860, drifted westward and had its stronghold in western Pennsylvania.
Quakers, although decreasing in number, led many humanitarian and reform movements.
Although anti-Catholic riots occurred at Kensington in 1844, German and Irish immigrants enlarged the number of Catholics in the state.
William Penn-V People Places Events ThinQs William Penn When William Penn left England on his first voyage to Pennsylvania,his head was full of visions and hopes for this new Land of Promise "six hundred miles nearer the sun." He wanted to see if he and his fellow Quakers could establish here a new society based on wider freedoms than the Old World knew; and he wanted also to see whether it was true, as he thought, that men and women were better and happier for this freedom.Believing good government to be part of God's plan for mankind, he called his venture a Holy Experiment.
He was in Pennsylvania only three and a half years., But from 1681, when he received the King's charter at the age of thirty-seven, to 1718, when he died, Pennsylvania was one of his chief preoccupations.
The http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page I .asp?secid=31 (I of 3)11/19/2007 10:41:00 AM William Penn growth and well-being of his colony was based on a tradition of religious toleration and freedom under law, fundamental principles of American civil life.Thomas Jefferson called Penn "the greatest law-giver the world has produced." Governor William Penn came to North America in 1682 and stayed for two years, returning only for another short stay from 1699 to 1701. Illness, financial worries, and threats to Pennsylvania's charter kept him from the tranquil enjoyment of his beautiful home on the Delaware River. Since he was in no position to take immediate charge of the government, it is remarkable that he was able to exert the influence he did on the development of the colony.Penn was born on October 24, 1644. His father was a famous English admiral, Sir William Penn. Young William grew up during a stormy time of revolution and reaction in England. For a short time, he was a soldier, and so successful a one that he thought of making a career in the army. But,, seeing the effects of violence and persecution, he was led to dream of a society in which war should have no place, and in which a man might freely worship according to his own conscience.
He joined the Society of Friends (the Quakers), who were pacifists, and threw his energies with theirs into political battles for freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and the right of trial by jury.http://www.phmc:state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page I .asp?secid=31 (2 of 3)11/19/2007 10:4 1:00 AM William Penn In 1681 there came a golden opportunity to make his dreams come true. King Charles II, out of "regard to the memorie and meritts of his late father," gave the younger Penn a huge tract of land in North America and named it, in honor of the Admiral, "Pennsilvania," or Penn's Woods. The new proprietor advertised for settlers-"adventurers" he called them: farmers, day laborers, carpenters, masons, smiths, weavers, tailors, tanners, shoemakers, shipwrights, and in addition, merchants who understood commerce, and men of administrative capacity to set the new community on its feet. At the same time, to reassure the Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch settlers who were already in the Province, and who provided a sturdy base for its coming population, he sent letters bidding them not to be disturbed at the change of government.
He was not a grasping and tyrannical governor, he said; and he promised them freedom: "You shall be governed by laws of your own making..." Penn delayed his departure for the New World for more than a year. He hoped to persuade his friend the Duke of York (soon to become King James II) to grant him title to the three counties of Delaware, lying south of Penn's original grant, which would guarantee an outlet to the sea. In late August, 1682, the Duke transferred his title to Penn, and within a few days Penn left for America. Sailing on a ship that was appropriately named the "Welcome," he made the voyage in comparatively good time.Previous Page Page Page Page Next Page 1 2 3 4 Page http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page I .asp?secid=31 (3 of 3)11/19/2007 10:41:00 AM William Penn, Page 2 People Places Events Things William Penn page 2 He arrived at New Castle in northern Delaware, October 27, 1682, less than two months after leaving England. The next day he sailed farther up the river to Upland, the most populous town in what became Pennsylvania.
He soon renamed the town Chester, for the English city of the same name. William Penn's first few weeks in the colony were busy ones indeed. One of the matters which he had to attend to right away was the arranging of a conference with Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland, on the boundary disputes between their two colonies.
The charters granted to Penn and to Lord Baltimore were hopelessly in conflict.
Lord Baltimore asserted that his charter properly included Delaware, and he also http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page2.asp?secid=3 I (1 of 3)11/19/2007 10:41:48 AM William Penn, Page 2 claimed so large a portion of southern Pennsylvania that the site chosen for Philadelphia would have gone to Maryland.
Penn never succeeded in settling this dispute during his lifetime, and in fact it was never settled by anyone until the surveying of the Mason-Dixon line in 1763.The boundary question did not stop Penn from taking great pride in the brand-new town of Philadelphia, which he inspected soon after landing at Chester.While Penn had been in England his agents had chosen the site for the new town and had laid it out in accordance with his directions.
Penn, a man of classical learning, had called* ,it Philadelphia, a name which he interpreted to mean "the city of brotherly love." Now, little more than a year old, the town was already Sbeginning to show signs of the prosperity and culture that were to give it first rank j among American cities in the later colonial period. Penn himself, describing his impressions of his first visit to the colony, hailed the new city with this eloquent passage: "And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been, to bring thee forth...." For the time being, however, Penn was not able to linger at Philadelphia; with his chief assistants he hurried down the river to New Castle for the opening of the first provincial court.He invited all those settlers with questions about land titles to be present at the next session of the court, and announced that until a provincial legislature could meet, the colonists would be governed by the laws of the province of New York wherever these did not conflict with English law. In the area of Indian relations, Penn's Quaker principles were plainly stamped onto the life of the colony. Almost immediately after arriving, despite his multitude of other duties, he took steps to establish peaceful relations with the Indians. Although he had accepted http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppel/penn/page2.asp?secid=31 (2 of 3)11/19/2007 10:41:48 AM William Penn, Page 2 title to his land from the English King, Penn respected the rights of the bronze-skinned people who had been living on it. He was careful to acquire the land from them by purchase, and to this end he and his agents held frequent conferences with the local Delaware chiefs and their retinue.Previous Page Page Page Page Next Page 1 2 3 4 Page http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page2.asp?secid=31 (3 of 3)11/19/2007 10:41:48 AM William Penn, Page 3 4,1J4 People Places Events Things William Penn page 3 He has described these scenes: the chief seated in the center, his council seated in a half-moon behind him, and beyond that another half-moon composed of all the other Indians of the community.
Proceedings on both sides were grave and courteous.
It was Penn's courtesy on these occasions, combined with his unfailing sense of fair play, that won the Indians' respect and affection.
He left behind him a tradition of good feeling that saved Pennsylvania for seventy years from the disaster of an Indian war.The painter Benjamin West'has immortalized a treaty of friendship which, according to tradition, Penn made with the renowned Delaware chief Tamanend soon after his arrival in 1682. Common belief has this treaty-one which Voltaire said was "never sworn to and never broken"- taking -place under the "Treaty Elm" at Shackamaxon, half a mile north of the center of Philadelphia.
Whether the story is literally true or not, it does symbolize the determination of the peace-loving Quakers to deal justly with their neighbors.
http://www.phmcstate.pa.us/ppet/penn/page3.asp?secid=31 (1 of 4)11/19/2007 10:43:18 AM William Penn, Page 3 Three weeks after- his arrival Penn called for an election of representatives to the first provincial Assembly, which would meet with him in Chester early in December.
These men convened on December 4 and stayed in session four days-long enough to pass-several laws and to grant Pennsylvania citizenship both to the Delaware residents~and to the few Swedes, Finns, and Dutchmen who had come to the area before the start of English colonization.
This was the first of four sessions of the Assembly held during Penn's brief stay in North America, and the laws passed during those sessions embodied the humanitarian and tolerant spirit of Penn and his fellow Quakers. Among the laws passed by the Assembly in 1682-83 were several which were accorded special status. These could not be changed except by agreement of the governor and six-sevenths of the members of the legislature.
Heading the list of these fundamental statutes was Penn's law protecting freedom of conscience.
Under this guarantee thousands of members of unpopular Christian sects were able to escape from ,the persecutions of the Old World. Unlike many people who have suffered restrictions on their freedoms, the Quakers had no http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page3.asp?secid=31 (2 of 4) 11/19/2007 10:43:18 AM William Penn, Page 3 wish to impose similar restrictions on others once they had the power. The criminal code adopted by Penn and the Assembly was also indicative of the Quakers idealism.
Only two crimes, murder and treason, were made punishable by death. At that time the laws in England prescribed the death penalty for such offenses as housebreaking, highway robbery, and all other robberies of more than one shilling.... .. ..,*7 A CPOLOGY: rOu \KRSI Between Law-making, Indian councils, land sales, and boundary disputes, Penn's stay in America was a strenuous one. His wife Gulielma had stayed behind in England with their children, the plan being that they would join Penn in the colony as soon as possible.
But Gulielma was destined never to cross the ocean. In 1684 Penn learned that Lord Baltimore was on his way back to England and would try to persuade the King to give Maryland the lands that were in dispute between the two colonies.
Penn knew that he must also go back if he were not to lose a large portion of his land. A remark by one of Lord Baltimore's agents -that Penn's beloved Philadelphia was "one of the prettiest towns in Maryland" -could not have made Penn feel very happy.http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page3.asp?secid=3 1 (3 of 4)11/19/2007 10:43:18 AM William Penn, Page 3 In August of 1684 he hurriedly left for England to protect his colony's interests.
He was not to return for fifteen years. The boundary quarrel dragged on interminably, and although Penn was able to prevent a transfer of the disputed lands to Maryland, he did not succeed in gaining a clear title to them himself.Meanwhile, other events began to overshadow this argument.
Penn's benefactor, James II, the former Duke of York, became King in 1685 and immediately began to make enemies with his harsh policies.Although he disagreed with the King on many points, and favored a much greater degree of popular rule than James would permit, Penn stayed loyal to their friendship.
As a result, when the King's troubled reign was abruptly ended by the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, Penn came under suspicion from the new rulers, William and Mary. For nearly six years he was either in prison or in hiding. Then in 1694, when he had finally succeeded in clearing his name, his beloved wife Gulielma died after a lingering illness. That left Penn with the care of their three children as well as with pressing financial problems.
Two years later he was married again, this time to Hannah Callowhill, an attractive and devout Quaker woman more than twenty-five years younger than himself.Previous Page Page Page Page Next Paqe 1 2 3 4 Pa4e http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page3.aspsecid=31 (4 of 4)11/19/2007 10:43:18 AM William Penn, Page 4 ME,-People Places Events Things William page 4 Penn When next he returned to Pennsylvania it would be with Hannah. Finally, Penn's desire to see the colony once again was reinforced by the demands of the British government.
The Board of Trade, which supervised provincial affairs, had heard reports that the Pennsylvania government, in Penn's absence, was abetting the activities of pirates who preyed on ships off the Atlantic coast. Penn promised to return at once to look into the reports and to take swift action if it seemed to be justified.
He landed at Philadelphia in early December of 1699, accompanied http://www~phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page4.asp?secid=31 (I of 4)1 1/19/2007 10:43:39 AM William Penn, Page 4 by Hannah and his grown daughter by the earlier marriage, Letitia. The piracy question was disposed of with little difficulty, and Penn was able to view with pride (and perhaps some bewilderment) the other changes in the colony. Philadelphia, "named after thou wert born," was a bustling little city with a population second only to Boston's in all of the New World.Pennsylvania was exporting such raw materials as lumber, furs, hemp, tobacco, iron, and copper and receiving high-quality British manufactured goods in exchange.
The population of the colony as a whole was increasing so fast that a year after his arrival, Penn obtained a deed from the Iroquois, or "Five Nations," for the lands adjoining the Susquehanna River that had belonged to the Susquehanna Indians.As often as official business allowed, Penn retreated to the wilderness home he had created for his family.Pennsbury Manor was across the Delaware River from the present city of Trenton, New Jersey, some twenty-four miles north of Philadelphia.
Here, in a home that was set in heavy woods and was conveniently accessible only by water, Penn spent many happy days. It was a large house, full of servants, handsome furniture, and good things for the dining table -for Penn, though deeply religious, was not an ascetic. He and his wife looked after the affairs of the house. From Pennsbury, as his letters disclose, he sent to town for such things as bricks, lime, locks, and nails, while she ordered chocolate, flour, bacon, coffee, cornmeal and (on one occasion)a "parlor bell." Such commodities were delivered by flatboat up the Delaware River. When they were not living at Pennsbury, the family stayed at the Slate Roof House, an ample Philadelphia dwelling owned by Samuel Carpenter.
It was in this house that his son John Penn was born on January 29, 1700. The only one of Penn's children to be born in North America, John always carried the nickname of "the American." http://www.phme.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page4.asp?secid=31 (2 of 4)11/19/2007 10:43:39 AM William Penn, Page 4 Perhaps the most important achievement of William Penn's second stay in the colony was the adoption of a new frame of government, the Charter of Privileges, in October, 1701. This constitution, which lasted three-quarters of a century, or until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, was a step in the direction of self-government for the colony. Although the governor retained his right to veto legislation, the elected Assembly gained the power to initiate bills, rather than merely to approve or reject those submitted to it by the governor and his council. The bell cast in 1751 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Charter of Privileges was engraved with the words, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," from the Book of Leviticus, Chapter 25, Verse 10. Today known as the Liberty Bell, it hangs in Independence Hall in Philadelphia to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Penn, during this visit, was concerned not only with the internal government of Pennsylvania but with the North American colonies as a whole. At a meeting with Governor Bellomont of New York and Governor Nicholson of Virginia in 1700 he got his brother officials to agree on a set of proposals for greatly increased cooperation among all the colonies.
These plans were sent to the Board of Trade in London, but nothing was done about them. Unity among the http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/penn/page4.asp?secid=3 1 (3 of 4)11/19/2007 10:43:39 AM William Penn, Page 4 colonies did not come until they had cut loose from Britain.As on his first visit, Penn found himself unable to stay as long as he would have liked in the colony. A determined movement was on foot in Parliament to place Pennsylvania under the direct control of the Crown. Once again Penn had to hurry back to England. He sailed in November, 1701, shortly after he had signed the Charter of Privileges.
Before leaving he also granted the request of the inhabitants of Delaware that they be allowed to separate from Pennsylvania.
Although Pen succeeded retaining his colony, the remainder of his life was filled with much unhappiness.
One of his close associates had defrauded him of a vast amountbof money, and Penn was tied up for years in the litigation that arose from this theft. By the time he emerged from this ordeal he was an elderly man whose health, especially after a severe stroke in 1712, would not permit another ocean voyage.He died on July 30, 1718, at the age of seventy-three. Except for two brief visits of less than two years each, William Penn had never had a chance to enjoy the colony for which he, more than anyone else, was responsible.
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