Pennsylvania (US: /ˌpɛnsəlˈveɪniə/ (About this soundlisten) PEN-səl-VAY-nee-ə, elsewhere /-sɪlˈ-/ -sil-; Pennsylvania German: Pennsilfaani), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, and Appalachian regions of the United States. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east, while the Appalachian Mountains run through its middle.
Pennsylvania is the 33rd-largest state by area, and the 5th-most populous state with a total population of 13,011,844[5] according to the most recent official U.S. Census count in 2020. It is the 9th-most densely populated of the 50 states. Pennsylvania's two most populous cities are Philadelphia (1,580,863), and Pittsburgh (302,407). The state capital and its 13th-largest city is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles (225 km) of waterfront along Lake Erie and the Delaware River.[8]
The state is one of the Thirteen original founding states of the United States; it came into being in 1681 as a result of a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of the state's namesake. Part of Pennsylvania (along the Delaware River), together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden. It was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12, 1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in Philadelphia, the state's largest city. During the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washington's headquarters during the bitter winter of 1777–78.
History
Main article: History of Pennsylvania
See also: List of Pennsylvania firsts and List of people from Pennsylvania
Historically, as of 1600, the tribes living in Pennsylvania were the Algonquian Lenape (also Delaware), the Iroquoian Susquehannock, and Petun (also Tionontati, Kentatentonga, Tobacco, Wenro)[9] and the presumably Siouan Monongahela Culture, who may have been the same as a little known tribe called the Calicua, or Cali.[10] Other tribes who entered the region during the colonial era were the Trockwae,[11] Tutelo, Saponi, Shawnee, Nanticoke, Conoy Piscataway, Iroquois Confederacy—likely among others.[12][13][14][15]
Other tribes, like the Erie, may have once held land in Pennsylvania, but no longer did so by the year 1600.[16]
17th century
Main articles: New Netherland, New Sweden, and Province of Pennsylvania
British map of Pennsylvania from 1680 (from the Darlington Collection)
Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their colonial lands in America.[17][18][19] The Dutch were the first to take possession.[19]
By June 3, 1631, the Dutch had begun settling the Delmarva Peninsula by establishing the Zwaanendael Colony on the site of present-day Lewes, Delaware.[20] In 1638, Sweden established the New Sweden Colony, in the region of Fort Christina, on the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. New Sweden claimed and, for the most part, controlled the lower Delaware River region (parts of present-day Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) but settled few colonists there.[21][22]
On March 12, 1664, King Charles II of England gave James, Duke of York a grant that incorporated all lands included in the original Virginia Company of Plymouth Grant plus other lands. This grant was in conflict with the Dutch claim for New Netherland, which included parts of today's Pennsylvania.[23]
On June 24, 1664, the Duke of York sold the portion of his large grant that included present-day New Jersey to John Berkeley and George Carteret for a proprietary colony. The land was not yet in British possession, but the sale boxed in the portion of New Netherland on the West side of the Delaware River. The British conquest of New Netherland began on August 29, 1664, when New Amsterdam was coerced to surrender while facing cannons on British ships in New York Harbor.[24][25] This conquest continued, and was completed in October 1664, when the British captured Fort Casimir in what today is New Castle, Delaware.
John Dickinson
The Peace of Breda between England, France and the Netherlands confirmed the English conquest on July 21, 1667,[26][27] although there were temporary reversions.
On September 12, 1672, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch re-conquered New York Colony/New Amsterdam, establishing three County Courts, which went on to become original Counties in present-day Delaware and Pennsylvania. The one that later transferred to Pennsylvania was Upland.[28] This was partially reversed on February 9, 1674, when the Treaty of Westminster ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War, and reverted all political situations to the status quo ante bellum. The British retained the Dutch Counties with their Dutch names.[29] By June 11, 1674, New York reasserted control over the outlying colonies, including Upland, but the names started to be changed to British names by November 11, 1674.[30] Upland was partitioned on November 12, 1674, producing the general outline of the current border between Pennsylvania and Delaware.[31]
On February 28, 1681, Charles II granted a land charter[32] to William Penn to repay a debt of £16,000[33] (around £2,100,000 in 2008, adjusting for retail inflation)[34] owed to William's father, Admiral William Penn. This was one of the largest land grants to an individual in history.[35] The King named it Pennsylvania (literally "Penn's Woods") in honor of Admiral Penn; the Admiral's son who proposed that the land be called New Wales and then, after objections, Sylvania (from the Latin silva: "forest, woods"), was embarrassed at the change from the latter proposed form, fearing that people would think he had named it after himself, but King Charles would not rename the grant.[36] Penn established a government with two innovations that were much copied in the New World: the county commission and freedom of religious conviction.[35]
What had been Upland on what became the Pennsylvania side of the Pennsylvania-Delaware Border was renamed as Chester County when Pennsylvania instituted their colonial governments on March 4, 1681.[37][38] The Quaker leader William Penn had signed a peace treaty with Tammany, leader of the Delaware tribe, beginning a long period of friendly relations between the Quakers and the Indians.[39] Additional treaties between Quakers and other tribes followed. The treaty of William Penn was never violated.[40][41][42]
18th century
Main articles: French and Indian War, Treaty of Paris (1763), Indian Reserve (1763), Pennsylvania in the American Revolution, First Continental Congress, American Revolutionary War, Second Continental Congress, Lee Resolution, United States Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia campaign, Articles of Confederation § Ratification, Treaty of Paris (1783), Constitutional Convention (United States), Admission to the Union, and List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union
Between 1730 and when it was shut down by Parliament with the Currency Act of 1764, the Pennsylvania Colony made its own paper money to account for the shortage of actual gold and silver. The paper money was called Colonial Scrip. The Colony issued "bills of credit", which were as good as gold or silver coins because of their legal tender status. Since they were issued by the government and not a banking institution, it was an interest-free proposition, largely defraying the expense of the government and therefore taxation of the people. It also promoted general employment and prosperity, since the Government used discretion and did not issue too much to inflate the currency. Benjamin Franklin had a hand in creating this currency, of which he said its utility was never to be disputed, and it also met with the "cautious approval" of Adam Smith.[43]
James Smith wrote that in 1763, "the Indians again commenced hostilities, and were busily engaged in killing and scalping the frontier inhabitants in various parts of Pennsylvania." Further, "This state was then a Quaker government, and at the first of this war the frontiers received no assistance from the state."[44] The ensuing hostilities became known as Pontiac's War.
After the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, Delegate John Dickinson of Philadelphia wrote the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. The Congress was the first meeting of the Thirteen Colonies, called at the request of the Massachusetts Assembly, but only nine colonies sent delegates.[45] Dickinson then wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, To the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, which were published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle between December 2, 1767, and February 15, 1768.[46]
When the Founding Fathers of the United States convened in Philadelphia in 1774, 12 colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress.[47] The Second Continental Congress, which also met in Philadelphia (in May 1775), drew up and signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia,[48] but when that city was captured by the British, the Continental Congress escaped westward, meeting at the Lancaster courthouse on Saturday, September 27, 1777, and then to York. There they and its primary author, John Dickinson, drew up the Articles of Confederation that formed 13 independent States[49] into a new union. Later, the Constitution was written, and Philadelphia was once again chosen to be cradle to the new American Union.[50] The Constitution was drafted and signed at the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, and the same building where the Declaration of Independence was signed.[51]
Pennsylvania became the first large state, and the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787,[52] five days after Delaware became the first. At the time it was the most ethnically and religiously diverse of the thirteen States. Because one-third of Pennsylvania's population spoke German, the Constitution was presented in German to include those citizens in the discussion. Reverend Frederick Muhlenberg acted as the chairman of the state's ratifying convention.[53]
Dickinson College of Carlisle was the first college founded after the States united. Established in 1773, the college was ratified five days after the Treaty of Paris on September 9, 1783. The school was founded by Benjamin Rush and named after John Dickinson.
The "Hills Capitol", used from 1821 until it burned down in 1897
For half a century, the Commonwealth's General Assembly (legislature) met at various places in the general Philadelphia area before starting to meet regularly in Independence Hall in Philadelphia for 63 years.[54] But it needed a more central location, as for example the Paxton Boys massacres of 1763 had made the legislature aware. So, in 1799 the General Assembly moved to the Lancaster Courthouse,[54] and finally in 1812 to Harrisburg.[54]
19th century
The General Assembly met in the old Dauphin County Court House until December 1821,[54] when the Federal-style "Hills Capitol" (named for its builder, Stephen Hills, a Lancaster architect) was constructed on a hilltop land grant of four acres set aside for a seat of state government by the prescient, entrepreneurial son and namesake of John Harris, Sr., a Yorkshire native who had founded a trading post in 1705 and ferry (1733) on the east shore of the Susquehanna River.[55] The Hills Capitol burned down on February 2, 1897, during a heavy snowstorm, presumably because of a faulty flue.[54] The General Assembly met at Grace Methodist Church on State Street (still standing) until a new capitol could be built. Following an architectural selection contest that many alleged had been "rigged", Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb was charged with designing and building a replacement building; however, the legislature had little money to allocate to the project, and a roughly finished, somewhat industrial building (the Cobb Capitol) was completed. The General Assembly refused to occupy the building. Political and popular indignation in 1901 prompted a second contest that was restricted to Pennsylvania architects, and Joseph Miller Huston of Philadelphia was chosen to design the present Pennsylvania State Capitol that incorporated Cobb's building into magnificent public work finished and dedicated in 1907.[54]
The new state Capitol drew rave reviews.[54] Its dome was inspired by the domes of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and the United States Capitol.[54] President Theodore Roosevelt called it "the most beautiful state Capital in the nation" and said, "It's the handsomest building I ever saw" at the dedication. In 1989, The New York Times praised it as "grand, even awesome at moments, but it is also a working building, accessible to citizens ... a building that connects with the reality o
