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The
History of Pennsylvania is as varied as any in the
American experience and reflects the
melting pot vision of
the United States.
Pre-colonial period
Before
Pennsylvania was settled by
Europeans, the area was home to the
Delaware (also known as Lenni Lenape),
Susquehannock,
Iroquois, Eriez,
Shawnee and other
Native
American tribes.
The Dutch and Swedes
The
Delaware River watershed was claimed by the
British based on the
explorations of John Cabot in
1497,
Captain John Smith and others, and was named for
Thomas West,
3rd Baron De La Warr, the Governor of
Virginia from 1610
until 1618. At that time the area was
considered to be part of the Virginia
colony. However, the Dutch thought they also had a claim,
based on the 1609 explorations of
Henry Hudson, and under the
auspices of the Dutch
West India Company were the first Europeans to actually
occupy the land. They established trading posts in
1624 at Burlington Island, opposite
Bristol, Pennsylvania, and then in 1626
at Fort Nassau, now
Gloucester City, New Jersey.
Peter Minuit was the Dutch
Director-General during this period and probably spent some
time at the Burlington Island post, thereby familiarizing
himself with the region. In any case,
Minuit had a falling out with
the directors of the
Dutch West India Company, was recalled from the
New Netherlands, and promptly
made his services available to his many friends in
Sweden, then a major power in European
politics. They established a
New Sweden Company and, following much negotiation, he
led a group under the flag of Sweden
to the Delaware River in
1638. They established a trading post at
Fort Christina, now in
Wilmington,
Delaware.
Minuit claimed possession of the western side of the
Delaware River, saying he had
found no European settlement there. Unlike the
Dutch West India Company,
the Swedes intended to actually bring settlers to their
outpost and begin a colony.
Minuit drowned in a hurricane on
the way home that same year, but the Swedish colony
continued to grow gradually. By 1644
Swedish and Finnish settlers were living along the western
side of Delaware River from
Fort Christina to the Schuylkill
River. New Sweden's best known
governor, Johan Björnsson
Printz, moved his residence to what is now Tinicum
Township, Pennsylvania, nearer center of the settlements.
The Dutch
never gave up their claim to the area, however, and once
they had some vigorous military leadership under
Peter Stuyvesant, they
attacked the Swedish communities and in 1655
reincorporated the area back into the
New Netherlands colony. It
was not long, though, before the Dutch as well were forcibly
removed by the British,
asserting their earlier claim. In 1664,
James, the Duke of York, and brother of King Charles II,
outfitted an expedition that easily ousted the Dutch from
both the Delaware and Hudson Rivers and leaving the Duke of
York the proprietary authority in the whole area.
The British colonial period
On
March 4, 1681,
Charles II of England
granted a land tract to William Penn
for the area that now includes Pennsylvania. Penn then
founded a colony there
as a place of religious freedom for
Quakers, and named it for the Latin
sylvania meaning "Penn's woods".
A large
tract of land north and west of Philadelphia, in Montgomery,
Chester, and Delaware Counties, was settled by
Welsh Quakers and
called the "Welsh Tract". Even
today many cities and towns in that area bear the names of
Welsh municipalities.
The western
portions of Pennsylvania were among disputed territory
between the colonial British
and French during the
French and Indian War.
The French established numerous fortifications in the area,
including the pivotal Fort Duquesne
on top of which the city of
Pittsburgh was
built.
The
colony's reputation of religious freedom also attracted
significant populations of German and
Scots-Irish settlers who helped
to shape colonial Pennsylvania and later went on to populate
the neighboring states further west.
In order to
give his new province access to the ocean, Penn had leased
the proprietary rights of the King's brother, James, Duke of
York to what became known as the "three lower counties" on
the Delaware. The Province of
Pennsylvania was never merged
with the Lower Counties because the
Duke of York, and therefore Penn, never had a clear title to
it. He did govern them both, however, and his deputy
governors were assigned to both as well. In Penn's
Frame of
Government of 1682, he tried to establish a combined
assembly by providing for equal membership from each county
and requiring legislation to have the assent of both the
Lower Counties and the
Upper Counties of Chester,
Philadelphia and Bucks. The meeting place also alternated
between Philadelphia and
New Castle. Once
Philadelphia began to grow its leaders resented having to go
to New Castle and gain
agreement of the assemblymen from the sparsely populated
Lower Counties and so there was a
mutual agreement in 1704 for the two
assemblies to meet separately from thenceforth.
The Revolution
Most of
Pennsylvania's residents generally supported the protests
and dismay common to all 13 colonies
after the
Proclamation of 1763 and the
Stamp Act. Pennsylvanians originally supported the idea
of common action, and sent delegates to the
Stamp Act Congress in
1765. When difficulties continued, they sent delegates to
the first Continental
Congress and its later meetings, and even hosted the
Congress in Philadelphia.British
then ross to control.
Constitution of 1776
In late
June a convention of delegates met in Philadelphia. They had
been selected by the Committees of Correspondence,
the Sons of Liberty,
and other revolutionary groups around the state. By June,
the old Assembly altered their delegate instructions in an
effort to remain effective. On July 8
they selected delegates to meet as a Constitutional
Convention. A Committee was formed with
Benjamin Franklin as chair
and George Bryan and
James Cannon as
prominent members. By September 28,
1776 the Convention produced a
constitution.
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. This constitution was never formally adopted.
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 ad-hoc government continued through the
revolution, and would not be replaced until the Constitution
of 1790.
Antebellum and Civil War
Pennsylvania was the target of several raids by the
Confederate States Army,
including cavalry raids in 1862 and 1863 by
J.E.B. Stuart, in 1863 by
John Imboden, and in 1864 by
John McCausland in which his
troopers burned the city of
Chambersburg.
Pennsylvania also saw the
Battle of Gettysburg, near
Gettysburg. Many
historians consider this battle the major turning point of
the American Civil War.
Dead from this battle rest at
Gettysburg National
Cemetery, site of Abraham
Lincoln's Gettysburg
Address.
A number of
smaller engagements were also fought in Pennsylvania,
including the Battle of Hanover,
Battle of Carlisle,
Battle of Hunterstown,
and the Battle of Fairfield,
all during the Gettysburg
Campaign.
Industrial Power, 1865-1900
In the
latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. oil (kerosene)
industry was born in western Pennsylvania, which supplied
the vast majority of U.S. kerosene for years thereafter, and
saw the rise and fall of oil boom towns.
Ethnicity and Labor 1865-1945
During this
time, America saw the arrival of millions of immigrants,
mainly Europeans. Pennsylvania and New York received the
bulk of them. Many of these poor immigrants took jobs in
factories, steel mills, and coal mines throughout the state.
Depression and War 1929-1950
During the
Depression, the Commonwealth attempted to fund public works
through passage of the Pennsylvania State Authority Act in
1936. The Act caused the incorporation of the General State
Authority, which would purchase land from the state and add
improvements to that land using state loans and grants. The
state expected to receive Federal grants and loans to fund
the project. The
Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Kelly v Earle,
found the Act violated the state constitution.
Decline of manufacturing and
mining: 1950-75
During the
20th century Pennsylvania's existing iron industries
expanded into a major center of steel production.
Shipbuilding and numerous other forms of manufacturing
flourished in the eastern part of the state, and coal mining
was also extremely important in many regions. In the late
1800s and early 1900s, Pennsylvania received a very large
numbers of immigrants from Europe seeking work; dramatic,
sometimes violent confrontations took place between
organized labor and the state's industrial concerns. The
state was hard-hit by the decline of the steel industry and
other heavy U.S. industries during the late 20th century.
In 1962,
the Republican party which had lost the two previous
gubernatorial elections and seen the state's electoral votes
go Democratic in the
1960
presidential election, became convinced that a moderate
like Bill Scranton would have
enough bipartisan appeal to revitalize the party. He ran for
Governor of Pennsylvania against
Richardson Dilworth, the
mayor of Philadelphia.
The ticket was balanced by having
Raymond P. Shafer, who
would succeed him as governor, as his
running mate. After one of the
most acrimonious campaigns in state history, the
Scranton/Shafer team won a landslide victory in the election
besting their opponents by nearly half a million votes out
of just over than 6.6 million cast.
As governor
1963-67, Scranton signed into law sweeping reforms in the
state's education system including creation of the state
community college system, the state board of education, and
the state Higher Education Assistance Agency. Furthermore,
he created a program designed to promote the state in
national and international markets and to increase the
attractiveness of the state's products and services.
The Service State: 1975-Present
Pennsylvania has suffered severely from the fall of steel
and coal. Economic failure, severe population loss in many
areas, closed-up factories, and much more. However,
beginning in the late 1970s, Pennsylvania began to turn
around and make a recovery. At every new census, the state
grew faster than the previous ten years. Many new
immigrants, especially from Asia and Latin America, have
arrived for many reasons. Dirty, lifeless towns have become
vibrant, growing places. Jobs and companies have begun
transferring their headquarters to the state, and
Pennsylvania has one of the best economies in the nation.
With the turnaround from manufacturing, the state has turned
to service industries. Healthcare, retail, transportation,
and tourism are some of the state's biggest industries of
this era.
Politics
Bob Casey was the governor,
1987-1995--Casey was an Irish
American Democrat "pol" of the old school, the son and
grandson of coal miners, who championed unions and believed
in government as a beneficent force. Casey pushed through
the legislature the "Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act,"
which placed limitations on abortion, including the
notification of parents of minors, a twenty-four-hour
waiting period, and a ban on partial-birth procedures except
in cases of risk to the mother's life. Planned Parenthood of
Southeastern Pennsylvania sued, with Casey as the named
defendant, asserting that the law violated
Roe v. Wade. The case went to the
Supreme Court in April, 1992. The Court decided The Court
decided Planned
Parenthood v. Casey on June 29th, upholding all of
Pennsylvania's contested restrictions but one (a requirement
for spousal notification) and affirming the right of states
to restrict abortions. At the national
level Governor Casey was the most prominent pro-life
Democrat and he demanded publicly to give a minority plank
on abortion at the
1992
Democratic National Convention. He was refused, and
protested loudly. In 1994, Casey refused to endorse
Harris Wofford, the Democrat
he had appointed to the Senate and who was running for
re-election. The reason was Casey rejected Wofford's
pro-choice views. The result was a
deep split in the state Democratic party that helped elect
arch-conservative Republican Rick
Santorum in 1994. Casey’s critics within the Democratic
Party accused him of treason. The Democratic divisiveness
over abortion did not fade away seat so in 2006, five years
after Casey's death, national Democratic leaders promoted
Casey's son Bob Casey, Jr. for
Senator as a way of defusing the issue and attracting
disaffected pro-life Democrats; the son defeated Santorum by
a landslide.
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