I | INTRODUCTION |
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, one of the Middle Atlantic states, and one of the 13 original
states of the United States. It entered the Union on December 12, 1787, making
it second after Delaware. Pennsylvania means “Penn’s woodland.” It was named in
honor of Admiral William Penn, whose son, William Penn, founded the colony as a
haven for members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and other religious
minorities in 1682. The state is known as the Quaker State, and is also referred
to as the Keystone State. This term was apparently first used because of the
state’s political importance, though it is also appropriate because of its
location in the middle of the 13 original states. With six states to the north
and six to the south, Pennsylvania was the keystone in an arch of states.
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia is its largest
city.
One of Pennsylvania’s outstanding
characteristics is its great diversity. In southeastern Pennsylvania, Berks,
Lancaster, York, and Chester counties contain some particularly fertile soils.
Dairy products, poultry and poultry products, cattle, nursery and greenhouse
products, and grains are especially valuable. Central and northern Pennsylvania
contains extensive areas of commercial forest. The state continues to be an
important industrial state, though there has been a dramatic shift to
service-based employment. Especially in western Pennsylvania, many smaller
communities as well as Pittsburgh are no longer the flourishing centers of
manufacturing that they once were.
Such national shrines as Independence Hall,
the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge, and Gettysburg are in the state and are constant
reminders of Pennsylvania’s importance in the history of the United States.
II | PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY |
Although populous, Pennsylvania is
relatively small, ranking 33rd among the states in size. It has an area of
119,282 sq km (46,055 sq mi), including 1,269 sq km (490 sq mi) of inland waters
and the 1,940 (2000) sq km (749 sq mi) of Lake Erie over which it has
jurisdiction. At its maximum, Pennsylvania measures 502 km (312 mi) from east to
west and 254 km (158 mi) from north to south. It is bounded on the north by New
York and Lake Erie; on the east by New York and New Jersey; on the south by
Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia; and on the west by West Virginia and
Ohio.
A | Natural Regions |
Pennsylvania may be divided into seven
regions based upon differences in landforms. Starting in the southeast, the
landform regions are: the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, South Mountain,
the Reading Prong, the Ridge and Valley, the Allegheny Plateaus, and the Lake
Erie Lowland.
The Atlantic portion of the Coastal Plain
in Pennsylvania is part of a vast, low sandy plain that runs along the East
Coast of the United States. In Pennsylvania the coastal plain is relatively
narrow. Philadelphia is located on this plain. At the western edge of the region
the Coastal Plain meets the more resistant rocks of the Piedmont.
The Piedmont is an area of foothills that
is located between the flat Coastal Plain and the great Appalachian mountain
system to the west (see Piedmont Plateau). It consists of old crystalline
rocks with gently rolling surfaces. Elevations generally range from about 30 to
300 m (about 100 to 1,000 ft). Slopes are moderate, and there are few sharp
breaks between hilltops and valley bottoms.
Just west of the Piedmont a narrow tongue
of the Blue Ridge Mountains extends into Pennsylvania. This extension is known
as South Mountain in both Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Another tongue of mountains lies across
the Susquehanna River valley to the northeast of South Mountain. This highland
area is known as the Reading Prong. Geologically, it can be traced through the
New Jersey Highlands into the mountainous portions of northern New England.
Often South Mountain and the Reading Prong are considered together to be
extensions of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Higher points in South Mountain and the
Reading Prong rise to about 450 m (about 1,500 ft) above sea level.
The Ridge and Valley region lies to the
west of South Mountain and the Reading Prong. It begins with the Great Valley, a
fingerlike lowland about 30 km (about 20 mi) wide that extends from the Maryland
border in the southwest to the Delaware River in the northeast. The Great Valley
is made up of the Lebanon, Lehigh, and Cumberland valleys. Like the Piedmont,
the Great Valley is gently rolling. Unlike many valleys, it is not the product
of erosion by a single stream but the work of many. Major streams like the
Schuylkill and Susquehanna rivers actually cut across the Great Valley, rather
than follow it.
Forming the northern and western walls of
the Great Valley are the first ridges of the Ridge and Valley region. The series
of long parallel ridges includes Blue, Tuscarora, Jacks, and Bald Eagle
mountains. Ridges alternate with long narrow valleys, which are gently rolling
lowlands like the Great Valley and the lowlands of the Piedmont. However, the
ridges themselves are rough and rocky, and rise more than 300 m (1,000 ft) above
the lowlands. Rock in the Ridge and Valley has been steeply folded.
The Allegheny Plateaus is the largest of
Pennsylvania’s landform regions. It occupies all of the northern part of the
state and much of the west. The plateaus extend into a number of other states,
including Ohio and West Virginia. The Allegheny Plateaus region contains the
immense Appalachian coalfield, whose bituminous coal deposits extend south into
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Rocks in this region are flat lying, rather
than steeply folded as in the Ridge and Valley. Nevertheless, few parts of the
Allegheny Plateaus are level. Most of the region has been deeply etched by
streams that branch and rebranch until they resemble the arms of a great tree.
Elevations average about 600 m (about 2,000 ft) in the north and 370 m (about
1,200 ft) in southern Pennsylvania.
There are marked regional differences
within the Allegheny Plateaus. In the east a small segment is known as the
Pocono Plateau or Pocono Mountains. The Poconos are covered with lakes and
woodlands. They were once covered by glaciers, as was much of the northern part
of the Allegheny Plateaus. Hills have been smoothed and valleys filled, so that
differences in elevation are not great.
South of the portions of the Allegheny
Plateaus that were glaciated, a great looping arc of highly dissected plateau
borders the Ridge and Valley region. This portion of the Allegheny Plateaus
contains the Allegheny Mountains, which are bordered on the east by a steep
ridge known as the Allegheny Front. The Allegheny Front abruptly separates the
Ridge and Valley from the Allegheny Plateaus. The Allegheny Front contains Mount
Davis, the highest point in the state at 979 m (3,213 ft) above sea level. The
Allegheny Front is cut by an intricate maze of deep valleys.
West of the Allegheny Mountains the
Allegheny Plateaus region decreases in elevation, and streams have dissected it
less deeply. This western portion of the Allegheny Plateaus is sometimes
referred to as the Pittsburgh Plateaus.
The seventh landform region found in
Pennsylvania is the Lake Erie Lowland, an extension of the Central Lowland. In
Pennsylvania the region is only a slim strip of land from 5 to 8 km (3 to 4 mi)
wide along the southern shore of Lake Erie. The ascent toward the south from
Lake Erie to the Allegheny Plateaus is achieved by a series of glacial terraces,
or steps, in the lowland plain. The terraces were formed by wave action when
Lake Erie was larger long ago.
B | Rivers and Lakes |
There are three major river basins in
Pennsylvania: the Susquehanna, the Ohio, and the Delaware. Together they drain
more than 90 percent of Pennsylvania’s land area. Most of eastern and central
Pennsylvania is drained by the Susquehanna and Delaware systems. The western
part of the state is drained by the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which join
at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio. In addition to the three major river basins,
short streams flowing into Lake Erie drain the northwestern fringe of the state;
a small area of Potter County, in north-central Pennsylvania, is drained by the
Genesee River into Lake Ontario; and parts of south-central Pennsylvania are
drained by tributaries of the Potomac River.
Many of the state’s rivers and streams
flow through mountainous or hilly regions, often cutting spectacular gorges and
water gaps, which have provided excellent natural passageways for railroads and
highways. Numerous dams and reservoirs in the state are designed to control
flooding, generate power, support recreation, and provide drinking water.
The Delaware River forms the state’s
eastern boundary. The sea has invaded the lower portion of the Delaware and
flooded the adjacent coastal plain, creating a tidal estuary. The river has long
been important commercially. Oceangoing ships can sail up the Delaware to
Philadelphia and go as far north as Trenton, New Jersey.
The Susquehanna River rises in two main
branches. The northern portion of the river, called the North Branch, enters
northeastern Pennsylvania from New York and follows a winding course southward.
The West Branch begins in the Allegheny Mountains and flows generally eastward.
The two branches meet at Sunbury in Northumberland County, and continue
southward to eventually empty into Chesapeake Bay. The Susquehanna’s principal
tributary, the Juniata River, also begins in the Allegheny Mountains and follows
a twisting course eastward through a series of mountain ridges before joining
the Susquehanna River upstream from Harrisburg.
The Allegheny River rises in the northwest
and flows generally southward. The Monongahela River enters the state from West
Virginia and flows northward. The junction at Pittsburgh of these two rivers
gives birth to the Ohio River, which flows westward to its eventual junction
with the Mississippi River. The rivers of southwestern Pennsylvania are
important transportation routes, particularly for the transport of coal.
Since northeastern and northwestern
Pennsylvania were once glaciated, these regions have many small natural lakes
and ponds. Conneaut Lake, which covers 376 hectares (929 acres) in Crawford
County, is the state’s largest natural lake. However, several lakes created when
dams were built are considerably larger. These include Pymatuning Reservoir,
which is located just west of Conneaut Lake on the Pennsylvania-Ohio state line,
and Lake Wallenpaupack in the Pocono Mountains.
C | Climate |
Because of the prevailing westerly winds
that sweep weather systems eastward from the interior of the continent, the
Atlantic Ocean has a relatively small effect on Pennsylvania’s climate. The
state has climates that are generally known as humid continental. There are
distinct seasonal variations and an abundance of rainfall.
Although average temperatures in the north
are cooler than those in the south, altitude is particularly important in
accounting for climatic variations. The state’s lowland climatic region changes
into the upland climatic region at an elevation of about 300 m (about 1,000
ft).
Lowland Pennsylvania includes the Atlantic
Coastal Plain and the low-lying hills of the southeast, the valleys of the Ridge
and Valley, and the river valleys converging on Pittsburgh. These areas have
comparatively long summers and mild winters, with growing seasons ranging from
five to seven months and mean annual temperatures ranging from about 12°C (about
54°F) at Philadelphia to about 10°C (about 50°F) in the central valleys.
Upland Pennsylvania includes the higher
ridges of the Ridge and Valley and most of the Allegheny Plateaus. Summers are
short and winters are comparatively severe. The growing season is commonly no
more than three to four months long, and the mean annual temperature ranges from
about 7° to 9°C (about 44° to 49°F).
A third type of climate is prevalent in a
small area near Lake Erie. The climate there is influenced by the presence of
the lake, which is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the surrounding
land. Consequently, the city of Erie has a growing season almost as long as that
of Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania, in sharp contrast to the land
between. Summers around Erie are long but relatively cool, with a July mean of
19°C (66°F). Winters are comparatively short and not nearly as severe as those
farther inland. Erie’s January mean is -2°C (28°F).
Rainfall averages 1,070 mm (42 in) a year,
ranging from about 910 mm (about 36 in) in the southwest to 1,270 mm (50 in) and
more at higher elevations in the Allegheny and Pocono mountains. Rainfall is
heaviest during spring and summer, when it is most needed for growing crops.
Snowfall is fairly heavy throughout much of the Allegheny Plateaus, and snow
remains on the ground for most of the winter.
D | Soils |
The soils of Pennsylvania vary
considerably from place to place. The best agricultural soils tend to be found
in southeastern Pennsylvania. Exceptionally productive soils derived from
limestone cover the gently rolling hills of the Piedmont, and can produce
bountiful crops. Excellent soils formed from limestone also occur in parts of
the Great Valley and in some of the central valleys. The largest of these is the
middle Susquehanna Valley, situated where the two branches of the Susquehanna
River meet in the central part of the state.
Soils are relatively poor for agricultural
purposes over most of the state. Most valleys in central Pennsylvania have less
fertile soils and have been abandoned as farming areas, while higher elevations
have never been farmed. The immature soils found in glaciated areas are also
generally poor for farming.
E | Plant Life |
The name Pennsylvania means “Penn’s
woodland.” The term is appropriate because the entire area was once a continuous
forest. As European settlers arrived, land was cleared for farming and timber
was cut to provide both lumber and charcoal. Eventually only a few patches of
virgin forest remained. Since the end of the 19th century, however, extensive
reforestation has occurred and 59 percent of the state is now covered by trees.
In some of the more remote areas the woodlands have almost regained a
pre-settlement wildness.
Pennsylvania is an area of transition
between the southern and northern forests of eastern North America. Hardwoods
typical of the southern forests, including oak, elm, maple, hickory, ash,
walnut, sycamore, yellow poplar, aspen, and birch, are found in the low-lying
hills and valleys of southeastern and southwestern Pennsylvania. At higher
elevations the white pine, pitch pine, hemlock, and other softwoods of the
northern forests predominate.
Familiar flowering shrubs include the
dogwood, redbud, pink azalea, and mountain laurel. Cranberries grow in many
marshy areas, and blueberries are common on rocky hillsides. Violets, anemones,
jack-in-the-pulpits, sweet williams, trilliums, and lady’s slippers are among
the many varieties of wildflowers. The hemlock and mountain laurel are so
abundant and so widely identified with Pennsylvania that they have been
designated the official state tree and state flower, respectively.
F | Animal Life |
Pennsylvania has a surprising abundance of
wildlife. Many animals are protected by game laws, and many habitats are
protected by state forest natural areas, sanctuaries, or state game lands. Black
bears, once nearly extinct in Pennsylvania, are numerous throughout the state.
The white-tailed deer is the most common large animal in the state. Among the
many small animals in Pennsylvania are rabbits, squirrels, and woodchucks. Other
animals include the beaver, raccoon, opossum, muskrat, coyote, gray and red fox,
skunk, ermine, and weasel.
Among the many varieties of songbirds in
the state are the robin, oriole, cardinal, song sparrow, mourning dove,
mockingbird, and bobolink. Game birds include wild turkeys, partridge, ruffed
grouse (the state bird), and geese.
Several types of salamanders, as well as a
great variety of other amphibians, reptiles, and fish are found throughout the
Allegheny Plateaus. Although most snakes in the state are harmless to humans,
poisonous copperheads and rattlesnakes occur in some mountain and forest areas.
Trout, perch, pike, bass, pickerel, and catfish are abundant in the state’s
lakes and streams.
G | Conservation |
State and federal agencies collaborate in
Pennsylvania to conserve and protect the environment. Pennsylvania’s two lead
agencies in the environmental field were created in 1995 to replace the
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. The Pennsylvania Department
of Environmental Protection is concerned primarily with regulatory matters. The
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources focuses on the
management of land and wildlife resources. Federal agencies include the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, Army Corps of Engineers,
and Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The restoration of Pennsylvania’s
woodlands has been an environmental achievement. Unregulated commercial
lumbering during the 19th century had virtually wiped out the state’s forests.
In 1897 the state began to purchase forest reserves, an act that marked the
beginning of its scientific forest conservation program. By the 1980s, with the
rigidly controlled cutting and planting of trees, about 6.8 million hectares
(about 16.8 million acres), or more than half the state’s land area, were again
forested. Of this amount more than 1.7 million hectares (4.3 million acres) were
publicly owned. In recent years, water pollution has presented mounting problems
in Pennsylvania, as it has elsewhere in the nation. Vigorous cooperative action
by the state and the city of Philadelphia has successfully cleaned up the badly
polluted Schuylkill River, which supplies much of the city’s drinking
water.
The Delaware River, another once badly
polluted stream, demonstrates that water conservation is often a regional,
rather than a state, problem. Pennsylvania shares the water of the Delaware with
New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. In 1961 these states signed the Delaware
River Basin Compact, which provided a long-range program to regulate and develop
the water resources of the Delaware River basin. Lake Erie, which Pennsylvania
shares with New York, Ohio, and Michigan, had become so badly polluted by
industrial wastes and urban sewage during the early 1960s that it was called a
dying lake. In 1965, the Lake Erie basin states and the federal government began
to halt the lake’s severe pollution, and it has since made a significant
recovery.
In 2006 Pennsylvania had 94 hazardous
waste sites on a national priority list for cleanup due to their severity or
proximity to people.
III | ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES |
Pennsylvania benefited from a strategic
location on the eastern seaboard, excellent inland waterways, and abundant
natural resources, especially coal. All contributed to Pennsylvania’s economic
growth. Farming, lumbering, mining, manufacturing, and trade were all important
activities in early colonial times, as they are today. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
and a great many smaller cities and towns led Pennsylvania’s economic growth.
Pittsburgh became a mighty producer of iron and steel, while Philadelphia became
a more diversified manufacturing center. Factories, coal mines, oil wells, stone
quarries, timberlands, and farms gave Pennsylvania a greater degree of
self-sufficiency than many countries.
Although a general exodus of both
population and industry has occurred from states in the Northeast since the
early 1970s, Pennsylvania has retained a strong overall economy and ranks high
among the states in annual gross personal income. In 2006, 6,306,000 people were
employed in the state. While today manufacturing remains an important sector of
Pennsylvania’s economy, employing 11 percent of the labor force, by far the
largest share of workers are now employed providing various services. Some 37
percent of the labor force is in the service sector, which includes such
activities as business services, entertainment, education, law, health care, and
recreation. Another 19 percent are employed in wholesale and retail trade. Of
the remaining workers, 13 percent are employed by federal, state, or local
government, including those serving in the military; 18 percent work in finance,
insurance, or real estate; 5 percent in construction; 19 percent in
transportation or public utilities; 2 percent in farming (including agricultural
services), forestry, or fishing; and less than 1 percent in mining. In 2005, 14
percent of Pennsylvania’s workers were unionized.
A | Agriculture |
In 2005 there were 58,200 farms in
Pennsylvania. Of those, 41 percent had annual sales of more than $10,000; the
others were often sideline activities for operators holding other jobs. Farmland
occupied 3.1 million hectares (7.7 million acres), of which about two-fifths was
cropland. Most of the remainder was pasture.
A1 | Patterns of Farming |
The best farming areas are the counties
of southeastern Pennsylvania, the Great Valley, and the fertile limestone and
alluvial valleys of central Pennsylvania. Dairying is important throughout this
area, and a wide variety of crops are grown. A single farm sometimes raises
dairy cows, beef, poultry, hay, grain, fruits, and vegetables. Northeastern and
northwestern Pennsylvania specialize in dairy farming, although fruits and
vegetables are cultivated intensively near the shores of Lake Erie. Southwestern
Pennsylvania has many dairy and truck farms.
A2 | Livestock |
The sale of livestock and livestock
products accounts for 68 percent of Pennsylvania’s farm income, and the state
ranks among the nation’s leading producers of milk, dairy products, poultry, and
eggs. Dairying is carried on in all the farming areas of the state and
predominates near some of the larger cities. While southeastern and southwestern
Pennsylvania combine dairying with general farming, dairying is the chief
agricultural activity in the northeast and northwest. Most dairy farmers also
raise poultry, and many raise beef cattle. The extreme southwestern corner of
the state, with its hilly pastureland, is noted as a sheep-raising
district.
A3 | Field Crops |
With a growing season ranging from
three to seven months, Pennsylvania can produce a wide variety of crops.
Although hay and corn are leading crops, their cash value is not especially
high, because much of the hay and grain grown on Pennsylvania farms is used to
feed livestock and poultry. Winter wheat, which is used to make a fine cake and
pastry flour, is an important crop in the southeast. Buckwheat, which does not
require a long growing season, is a major crop in the northeast. Other important
crops include potatoes, oats, rye, barley, and a variety of truck crops.
There are two important orchard regions
in the state. Apples and peaches are grown on the slopes of South Mountain in
the southeast. Near the shore of Lake Erie, apples, cherries, and grapes are
important crops. Because there is much less danger of frost near the lakeshore
than farther inland, this area is well suited to fruit growing.
Pennsylvania also produces some
interesting agricultural specialties. Around the towns of Avondale and Kennett
Square, in the southeast, many farmers cultivate mushrooms inside sheds where
light and temperatures can be controlled. Mushrooms have become an important
crop for the state as a whole. They rank second in economic importance behind
greenhouse and nursery items. Around York and Lancaster, also in the southeast,
many farmers raise cigar-leaf tobacco, and this area produces much of the cigar
filler grown in the United States. Tobacco is still a profitable crop. Because
tobacco rapidly exhausts the soil, it is grown on only a small percentage of
each farm’s acreage and is alternated with other crops. Maple-sugar processing
and Christmas tree cultivation are important agricultural activities in some
parts of the Allegheny Plateaus.
B | Forestry |
Pennsylvania’s first industry was
lumbering. During the 19th century the state became the nation’s leading
producer of commercial lumber. Virgin forests vanished, and a second and
sometimes a third crop of trees disappeared into the sawmills. By 1900 the
forests had become depleted, and the lumber industry had moved westward to other
areas.
As a result of reforestation, however,
Pennsylvania now supports a new lumber industry. Forest-related industries
include the manufacture of lumber, pulp, veneer, furniture, and the processing
of wood for chemicals. Tanneries use acids from tree bark to cure leather.
Wood-chemical plants, which use small trees and brush after the larger trees
have been cut, are located in the northwest. Although the industry is small,
Pennsylvania is a leading producer of wood chemicals. Altogether the state’s
forests, including forest-related industries, provide jobs for many thousands of
people.
C | Mining |
Pennsylvania has always ranked high
among the nation’s mineral-producing states. It has enormous coal reserves and
is the Industrial Age’s oldest producer of petroleum. Limestone, sand and
gravel, clay, and peat are also mined or quarried in significant quantities.
Fuels are of prime importance, however, and coal, oil, and natural gas made up
about four-fifths of the value of the state’s mineral output in the late 1990s.
Coal in particular has profoundly affected Pennsylvania’s economic development.
It has long been an essential source of fuel for the state’s steel mills.
C1 | Coal |
For more than two centuries,
Pennsylvania has produced nearly all the anthracite coal mined in the United
States and far more bituminous coal than any other state. For many decades the
state led the nation in total coal production, but it now ranks fourth (behind
Wyoming, West Virginia, and Kentucky).
The anthracite region, covering an
area of less than 1,300 sq km (500 sq mi) contains the only anthracite deposits
in the United States, with the exception of small areas in Colorado and New
Mexico. This region lies in the eastern part of the Ridge and Valley. It
consists of the Wyoming Basin in the north around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, the
Middle Field around Hazelton, and the Southern Field around Pottsville.
Anthracite is an extremely hard, high-quality coal that burns with a clear flame
and almost no smoke. Although in the past it was used extensively to heat homes
and office buildings, it is little used for industrial purposes. With the
increasing use of oil, gas, and electricity to heat homes and buildings, the
demand for anthracite has steadily declined. From a peak production of nearly 90
million metric tons a year mined during World War I (1914-1918), the output of
Pennsylvania anthracite dropped to 4 million metric tons a year in the late
1990s.
Bituminous coal, which is softer,
easier to mine, and less expensive than anthracite, occurs widely throughout
western Pennsylvania. Bituminous coal is ideal for an extensive variety of
industrial purposes. Much has been used to make coke for the blast furnaces in
iron and steel mills. Because of technological changes in transportation and
industry, and a more recent decline in iron and steel production, the demand for
bituminous coal has declined in the 20th century. Production in Pennsylvania
dropped from more than 160 million metric tons a year during World War I to
around 80 million metric tons a year beginning in the early 1970s. It was 65
million metric tons in the late 1990s.
Along with the declining demand for
both bituminous and anthracite coal, mechanization of the coal-mining industry
has accelerated. In 1975 there were only one-fourth as many miners in the state
as in 1940. The resulting unemployment problems led to a large-scale exodus from
the mining areas. From 1920 to 1960 the population of the anthracite region
dropped from more than 1 million to less than 800,000. In the west many of the
smaller mining towns were abandoned. The coal regions have attempted to attract
new employment. In the area around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, where a major
battle for economic rehabilitation is being waged, manufacturing is now more
important to the economy than mining.
C2 | Petroleum and Natural Gas |
The world’s first commercial oil well
was drilled at Titusville, in northwestern Pennsylvania, in 1859. During the
last half of the 19th century, Pennsylvania was the nation’s leading oil
producer. Peak production was reached in 1891, with 31 million barrels. While
the state no longer ranks high as an oil producer, its reserves are not yet
exhausted. Oil wells produced 3.6 million barrels of oil in 2006.
While oil was once the chief product
pumped from Pennsylvania’s ground, the value of natural gas extracted in the
late 1990s was far greater than the value of the petroleum processed. In 2005
production of natural gas was 4.8 billion cu m (169 billion cu ft).
C3 | Other Minerals |
Limestone is distributed widely
throughout southeastern and central Pennsylvania. It is used as a building
stone, a source of lime, a flux in blast furnaces, and as an ingredient in
Portland cement. Pennsylvania is one of the nation’s largest cement producers,
and much of its output comes from an area north of Allentown in the Lehigh
Valley. Slag, a waste product of the steel industry, is widely used in the
manufacture of construction materials. Sandstone is found along the major stream
courses, particularly in those regions that once were glaciated, and provides
the raw material for the state’s glass-manufacturing industry. Clay is widely
scattered throughout the state, with clay-products plants making such items as
tile, sewer pipe, and heat-resistant materials for industrial furnaces.
D | Manufacturing |
Because of the wide variety of
manufactures made in Pennsylvania, including basic industrial goods as well as
consumer goods, the state was long known as the Workshop of America. This is
less true today, however, because of major declines in the iron and steel and
machinery industries. Until the 1980s primary metals industries ranked first in
the state. In the late 1970s and first half of the 1980s the iron and steel
industry was savaged by national economic recessions, high costs, aging
equipment, and foreign competition. Many steel mills were permanently closed,
and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Between 1977 and 1986, more than
100,000 jobs disappeared in the primary metals industries. Over the same period,
36,000 jobs disappeared in the machinery industry. By 1993 the manufacturing
sector held 13 percent fewer jobs than ten years before.
The manufacture of electronic equipment
has become the state’s leading industry. Firms making products such as
communications systems, silicon wafers for semiconductors, and electronic
components for engines have made Pennsylvania a leading high-technology
manufacturing state.
The production of chemicals, principally
pharmaceuticals, is the state’s second largest industry in terms of valued added
by manufacturing. Other manufactures by biotechnology firms include medical
devices.
Food processing is now the state’s third
largest industry. Pennsylvania is the nation’s leading producer of chocolate and
cocoa products and ranks high in the production of ice cream, potato chips,
pretzels, sausages, and canned mushrooms.
Because the decline in the U.S. steel
industry has been nationwide, Pennsylvania still makes more steel than any other
state, and the primary metal industry remains a large contributor to the gross
state product. The iron and steel industry originated in southeastern
Pennsylvania near the state’s iron ore deposits. As coke, made from bituminous
coal, replaced charcoal as a blast-furnace fuel, the industry moved westward to
the Pittsburgh area. Here, bituminous coal was close at hand and iron ore could
be shipped in cheaply from the Lake Superior region and abroad. Pittsburgh’s
industrialized area later expanded throughout much of southwestern
Pennsylvania.
Complementing Pennsylvania’s iron and
steel industry are the factories distributed throughout the state that
manufacture hundreds of metal products, including industrial machinery, farm
implements, railroad cars and equipment, automobile bodies and parts, scientific
instruments, tools and hardware, and metal pipes and tubing. Philadelphia is a
major producer of fabricated metal goods, transportation equipment, electrical
equipment, and all kinds of machinery. Metalworking plays an important role in
the economy of the state’s smaller industrial cities and towns. Along with
metal-products plants many industrial towns have clothing factories and textile
mills that make yarns, fabrics, and rugs and carpets.
Other leading manufacturers in
Pennsylvania include printers and publishers, with hundreds of firms publishing
newspapers, periodicals, and books; paper manufacturers, with outputs such as
corrugated boxes and sanitary paper products; and industries producing
transportation equipment, including aircraft, railroad equipment, motor vehicle
parts, and equipment for use in space.
The Philadelphia Metropolitan area,
which has been the state’s chief manufacturing center since colonial times, has
more than 7,000 factories that turn out an extraordinary array of products, with
textiles, clothing, and metal goods leading in importance. Printing and
publishing, petroleum refining, and sugar refining are also major industries.
Pittsburgh is a major manufacturer of secondary metal goods, chemicals, glass
and clay products, and processed foods. Other important industrial areas include
Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, the tri-city area of Easton, Allentown, and
Bethlehem, and the cities of Reading, York, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Chester,
Erie, Johnstown, Altoona, and Williamsport.
E | Electricity |
Of the electricity generated in
Pennsylvania in 2005, 63 percent came from steam-driven power plants burning
fossil fuels, mainly coal, and 35 percent came from nuclear power plants. In
2006 the state had 9 operating nuclear reactors. In 1979 a near meltdown of the
core in a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg resulted in the
shutdown of that reactor and, for a short time, the partial evacuation of nearby
residents. Only 1 percent of the state’s electricity is generated by
hydroelectric facilities.
F | Tourist Industry |
Tourism is virtually the only industry
in the Pocono Mountains, long a popular resort area. In the more rugged
woodlands of the Alleghenies several summer and winter resort areas have been
developed, including a number of ski resorts. In addition, Pennsylvania’s many
historic sites attract millions of visitors yearly.
G | Transportation |
The state’s three major navigable
waterways, the Delaware River, the Ohio River, and Lake Erie, have helped make
Pennsylvania an important trade and transportation center since colonial
times.
Philadelphia, with its excellent inland
harbor at the upper tip of Delaware Bay, ranked 18th among U.S. ports in total
tonnage in 1996. Petroleum and petroleum products, metal ores, and scrap are the
port’s most important imports and its leading exports. Iron and steel materials,
chemicals, fertilizers, paper, meat, and fruits and vegetables also rank high
among the city’s imports, while other significant exports include chemicals,
fertilizers, coal, and coke.
Pittsburgh, the chief trading center for
heavily industrialized southwestern Pennsylvania, is one of the nation’s busiest
inland ports. Because the Ohio flows westward toward the Midwest and the South,
the entire inland waterway system of the United States is accessible to the
Pittsburgh area.
Erie, the state’s third port of entry,
gained access to world ports with the completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in
1959, and has developed facilities to handle oceangoing vessels. Erie exports
clay and manufactured products and imports sand and gravel, pig iron, and
various minerals.
In 2004 Pennsylvania had more separate
railroads than any other state, operating on track extending for 8,143 km (5,060
mi). Some 60 percent of the freight tonnage originating within the state was
coal. In 2005 the state was served by a dense public highway network of 194,196
km (120,668 mi), including 2,829 km (1,758 mi) of federal interstate highways.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike, the first superhighway built in the United States,
stretches across the state. In 2007 Pennsylvania had 16 airports, most of which
were private. Of the commercial fields, the airports in Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia were the busiest, between them serving nearly 16 million passengers
a year.
IV | THE PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA |
In the 2000 census, Pennsylvania ranked
sixth in the nation after California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois
with a population of 12,432,792. This represented a population increase of 3.4
percent from 1990. The state had a population density of 107 persons per sq km
(278 per sq mi) in 2006.
A | Population Patterns |
When William Penn established his colony
as a refuge for Quakers, he promised complete religious freedom to other
oppressed minorities. As a result, the colony’s English Quakers were soon joined
by such diverse groups as German Mennonites, French Huguenots, and Scots-Irish
Presbyterians. Ever since, Pennsylvania has been home to an exceptional variety
of nationalities and religions. During the early decades of the 19th century the
increase of factories and mines in the state attracted large numbers of
immigrants from the British Isles and northern Europe. They were followed later
in the century by equally large numbers of immigrants from eastern and southern
Europe. During the 20th century, many blacks from the South migrated to
Pennsylvania.
According to the 2000 census, whites
constitute 85.4 percent of the state’s population, blacks 10 percent, Asians 1.8
percent, and Native Americans 0.1 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific
Islanders numbered 3,417. People of mixed heritage or not reporting race were
2.7 percent of all inhabitants. Hispanics, who may be of any race, made up 3.2
percent of the population.
B | Principal Cities |
In 2000, 77 percent of Pennsylvania’s
population lived in urban areas. More than three-fifths of all Pennsylvanians
lived in the metropolitan areas of the state’s two largest cities, Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh.
Philadelphia has been Pennsylvania’s
leading city since it was founded three centuries ago. With a population of
1,448,394 (2006), it ranked fifth after New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and
Houston. Its metropolitan area, which had a population of 6,188,500 in 2000,
sprawls over a large area of southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.
Recent renewal in Philadelphia has done much to restore that city’s historic
grandeur. In addition to its importance as a seaport, commercial hub, and
manufacturing center, Philadelphia is noted for its outstanding cultural and
educational facilities. It has several colleges and universities, a renowned
symphony orchestra, and numerous art galleries, museums, and historic
sites.
Pittsburgh had a population of 312,819
(2006), and its metropolitan area was home to 2,370,800 people. Urban
development stretches from the city out across the region’s river valleys and
over adjacent hills. An urban redevelopment program, including strict
smoke-control measures, transformed the city’s central business district in the
second half of the 20th century. Besides its history as a center of iron and
steel manufacturing and other industries, the city is notable today for its
health care, higher education, and scientific research.
Pennsylvania’s other large cities,
according to 2006 population figures, are Allentown (107,294), Erie (102,036),
Reading (81,183), Scranton (72,861), Bethlehem (72,704), Lancaster (54,779),
Altoona (46,954), and Harrisburg (47,164).
C | Religion |
There are more than 100 different
religious denominations represented in the state, with more than 7 million
members. Religious groups with special historical significance include the
Quakers, or Friends; the Presbyterian churches of the Scots-Irish; and the
Lutheran, Reformed, Evangelical United Brethren, and other churches of the
Pennsylvania Germans. The Roman Catholic Church also dates back to colonial
days, and the first Jewish congregation was organized at Lancaster in 1776. In
many mining towns, which often have large populations of eastern European
derivation, the onion-shaped spires of Greek and Russian Orthodox churches are
familiar sites.
The Pennsylvania Germans are often called
the Pennsylvania Dutch, a corruption of Deutsch, which means “German.”
Probably the state’s best-known ethnic group, they are descended from German
farmers who settled in southeastern Pennsylvania beginning in the 17th century.
Their neat, well-cared-for farms are especially numerous in Northampton, Berks,
Lancaster, and York counties. The barns on Pennsylvania German farms often bear
medallions that are traditionally known as hex signs. They have been variously
explained as family or trade emblems, as good luck symbols, or merely as
decoration.
Included among the Pennsylvania Germans
are several religious sects, such as the Mennonites. Although members of these
sects make up a small portion of the Pennsylvania German population, they are
particularly well known because they tend to reject worldly concerns and cling
staunchly to their old standards and manners. The Old Order Amish, an offshoot
of the Mennonites, have refused to adopt such modern devices as automobiles and
motorized farm machinery. The Amish can be easily recognized in many rural areas
by their simple yet distinctive clothing and by their horse-drawn wagons.
V | EDUCATION AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS |
A | Education |
The Frame of Government drawn up by
William Penn for the province of Pennsylvania in 1682 stipulated that the
children of the province be instructed in reading, writing, and in “some useful
trade or skill.” For more than 150 years, however, education remained primarily
the responsibility of churches and private individuals. In 1834, the Free School
Act provided for a statewide system of free elementary schools and for school
directors, districts, and taxes. Since 1895, school attendance has been
compulsory. At present all children from the ages of 8 to 17 are required to
attend. Some 19 percent of Pennsylvania’s children attend private schools.
In the 2002–2003 school year Pennsylvania
spent $10,445 on each student’s education, compared to a national average of
$9,299. There were 15.2 students for every teacher (the national average was
15.9). Of those older than 25 years of age in the state in 2006, 86.2 percent
had a high school diploma. The national norm was 84.1 percent.
A1 | Higher Education |
In 2004–2005 Pennsylvania had 65 public
and 195 private institutions of higher learning. The Pennsylvania State
University in University Park is a land-grant university only partly supported
by state funds. Other state-related universities include the University of
Pittsburgh and Temple University, in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania State System
of Higher Education is made up of 14 universities that are fully owned by the
state.
The University of Pennsylvania grew out
of a charity school founded in Philadelphia in 1740. It is a private institution
that receives some state support. In 1765 it opened the first medical college in
the United States and thus became the nation’s first university. The University
of Pittsburgh grew out of the Pittsburgh Academy, chartered in 1787. It became a
university in 1819. Other leading schools include La Salle University and Drexel
University, in Philadelphia; Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University,
in Pittsburgh; Bucknell University, in Lewisburg; Dickinson College, in
Carlisle; Bryn Mawr College, in Bryn Mawr; Franklin and Marshall College, in
Lancaster; Moravian College and Lehigh University, in Bethlehem; Albright
College, in Reading; Arcadia University, in Glenside; Gettysburg College, in
Gettysburg; Grove City College, in Grove City; Juniata College, in Huntingdon;
Lincoln University, in Lincoln University; Ursinus College, in Collegeville;
Widener University, in Chester; Haverford College, in Haverford; Swarthmore
College, in Swarthmore; Villanova University, in Villanova; and Washington &
Jefferson College, in Washington. Schools of the arts include the Moore College
of Art and Design, University of the Arts, and the Curtis Institute of Music,
all in Philadelphia.
B | Libraries |
The nation’s first circulating library,
the Library Company of Philadelphia, was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin
and others. The Library Company is currently a research center with an
outstanding collection of rare books and Americana. Pennsylvania has 451
tax-supported library systems, which annually circulate an average of 5.1 books
for every resident. There are a great many more school and college libraries.
The library systems of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh rank among the largest in the
nation. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, has a notable
collection of manuscripts, books, pamphlets, and periodicals dealing with
Pennsylvania and U.S. history.
C | Museums |
Outstanding museums in Philadelphia
include the Franklin Institute Science Museum, which is devoted largely to
advances in science and technology. The Academy of Natural Sciences is the
oldest scientific institution of its kind. The University of Pennsylvania Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology is devoted to the study of humans and contains
artifacts from ancient civilizations and from Native American tribes of North
and South America. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, founded in
Philadelphia in 1805 to promote the cultivation of the fine arts, is the
nation’s oldest art institution. It possesses a fine collection of American art,
ranging from colonial times to the present. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has
outstanding collections of paintings, sculpture, and tapestries from Europe,
America, and East Asia.
The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh include
the Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science
Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum. The art museum features an international
survey of contemporary art and the Heinz Architectural Center. The Senator John
Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center opened in 1996. The State Museum of
Pennsylvania in Harrisburg specializes in the state’s history and
archaeology.
D | Communications |
Pennsylvania’s first newspaper and the
fourth newspaper in the American colonies was the American Weekly
Mercury, issued in 1719. By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783),
six newspapers were being published in the colony, including four in
Philadelphia. The first U.S. daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Post and Daily
Advertiser, was issued in Philadelphia in 1783. In 2002 Pennsylvania had 84
daily newspapers, which had a total circulation of 3 million. The newspapers
with the largest circulation in the state are the Philadelphia Inquirer,
the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
One of the world’s first commercial radio
broadcasting station, KDKA, began operations in Pittsburgh in 1920.
Pennsylvania’s first commercial television station, KYW-TV, began operations in
Philadelphia in 1941. In 2002 Pennsylvania had 157 AM and 216 FM radio stations
and 45 television stations.
E | Music and Theater |
The Moravians who settled near Bethlehem
and the people of the Ephrata Cloisters near Lancaster developed religious music
in colonial Pennsylvania. The Orpheus Club, established in Philadelphia in 1759,
is one of the first U.S. musical organizations. The Philadelphia Orchestra and
the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have achieved international recognition. Both
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have several professional theaters, including the
InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Summer theaters and community playhouses flourish throughout the state.
F | Scientific Research |
A remarkable concentration of medical and
industrial research is carried on by universities, hospitals, corporations, and
independent research organizations in the Pittsburgh area. Pittsburgh is also a
center of nuclear research, and the nation’s first commercial nuclear power
plant was built on the Ohio River just north of the city. The Carnegie Mellon
University is a leader in robotics, computer science, software development, and
other studies in fundamental and applied science. Pittsburgh hospitals are world
renowned for their research on organ transplants.
VI | RECREATION AND PLACES OF INTEREST |
Pennsylvania has a wealth of historical
shrines, numerous lakes and streams, and vast areas of mountains, forests, and
picturesque countryside. An extensive system of state parks and recreation areas
provides facilities for swimming, boating, camping, hiking, and picnicking. The
state also administers many historical sites, monuments, and buildings.
A | Scenic Attractions |
The lakes and woodlands of the Pocono
Mountains and the Delaware Water Gap, where the Delaware River has cut a
spectacular gorge through the mountains in Monroe County, are probably the
state’s most widely known sights. Other popular attractions include the 22 named
water falls of Kitchen Creek in Ricket’s Glen State Park, west of Wilkes-Barre;
the Pine Creek gorge, known as Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon, in Tioga County; the
110-km (70-mi) shoreline of the Pymatuning Reservoir on the Pennsylvania-Ohio
state line; and Conneaut Lake in Crawford County, the state’s largest natural
lake. Cook Forest in Clarion County contains Pennsylvania’s largest stand of
virgin timber.
B | National and State Forests |
The Allegheny National Forest comprises
about 209,000 hectares (about 516,000 acres), and extends through parts of
Warren, McKean, Forest, and Elk counties. State forest land covers more than
800,000 hectares (2 million acres).
C | Historic Sites |
Pennsylvania played a central role in the
birth of the United States. Many of the state’s historical sites commemorate the
events and people of the American Revolution (1775-1783). The Declaration of
Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, in the State House in Philadelphia. In
this building the Continental Congress met during the American Revolution, and
there the Constitutional Convention gathered to frame the Constitution of the
United States. Now known as Independence Hall, it houses a small museum of
colonial objects and other objects of historical interest. The building,
together with its adjacent mall and nearby pavilion housing the Liberty Bell, is
part of the Independence National Historical Park. Another national historical
park is at Valley Forge, northwest of Philadelphia, where George Washington and
the Continental Army camped during the winter of 1777 and 1778. Fort Necessity
National Battlefield, in Fayette County, is the place where George Washington
and his Virginia militia encountered French forces in 1754. Pennsylvania also
was the site of one of the major conflicts of the American Civil War
(1861-1865). The Battle of Gettysburg, an attempt by the Confederates to win a
major battle on Union soil and which marked the turning point of the Civil War,
is commemorated by the Gettysburg National Military Park in southeastern
Pennsylvania. Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh is the site of historic
Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site is a
restored 19th-century iron-making village located near Pottstown in eastern
Pennsylvania. The Daniel Boone Homestead was the frontiersman’s boyhood home
near Reading. All across Pennsylvania, historical markers chronicle historical
events and developments.
D | Annual Events |
The diversity of Pennsylvania is shown in
the range of festivals and events held annually in the state. The attention of
the country is focused on Punxsutawney each February as the emergence of a
groundhog from its burrow portends, according to lore, the number of weeks
remaining of winter. Charter Day is celebrated each March at many of the state’s
historical sites and museums, commemorating the granting of a charter to William
Penn to found the Pennsylvania colony. The Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
screens an array of international and independent films during its two-week run
in May. Some of the world’s best young baseball players step up to the plate
each August during the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport.
During December of each year Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, becomes Christmas city in
celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem in the Middle East.
E | Sports and Recreation |
Pennsylvania has ample outdoor
facilities for both summer and winter sports. Particularly popular are fishing,
swimming, boating, hunting, hiking, and golf. Skiing is also popular; ski areas
are concentrated in the Pocono Mountains in the northeast and the Allegheny
Mountains in the southwest. Several professional sports teams are based in
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, including the Philadelphia 76ers (basketball), the
Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins (ice hockey), the Philadelphia
Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers (football), and the Philadelphia Phillies and
Pittsburgh Pirates (baseball).
VII | GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS |
Pennsylvania is one of four states in the
nation officially designated commonwealths (the others are Kentucky,
Massachusetts, and Virginia). Pennsylvania has had four constitutions. The
present one, which became effective in 1874, was substantially revised during
1967 and 1968. An amendment to the constitution may be proposed by the state
legislature. After a majority of the legislature approves the proposal in two
consecutive sessions, it is submitted to the people for ratification in a
general election.
A | Executive |
The executive branch of government is
headed by the governor, who is elected for a four-year term. A governor may be
reelected for one additional term. Also elected for four years are the
lieutenant governor, state treasurer, attorney general, and auditor general. The
governor, usually with the consent of the state senate, appoints the heads of
numerous state departments and the members of various boards and
commissions.
B | Legislative |
The legislative branch, called the
General Assembly, meets each year on the first Tuesday in January. It consists
of a Senate of 50 members and a House of Representatives of 203 members. The
senators are elected for four years and the representatives for two years.
C | Judicial |
The state judiciary consists of a
Supreme Court of seven justices, a superior court of ten, and commonwealth
courts. All judges in the courts are elected for ten-year terms. On the local
level there are judicial districts, usually corresponding with counties, and a
variety of lower courts.
D | Local Governments |
The 67 counties of Pennsylvania make up
the basic local units of government. Most counties are governed by a
three-member Board of County Commissioners, who are each elected for four years.
Various other county officials also are elected. A few counties have adopted an
executive form of government. Below the county level the state is divided into
cities, boroughs, and townships. The 52 cities each have a population of at
least 10,000 people and are governed by a mayor and a city council, elected for
four years. In Philadelphia, which in 1854 expanded to include the whole of
Philadelphia County, the city government has replaced the former county
government.
By Pennsylvania law, a borough may
become a city when it has reached a population of 10,000, but many eligible
boroughs have not made this change because it requires a more expensive form of
government. There are nearly 970 boroughs in the state, most of which are small
urban communities. Boroughs are governed by mayors and councils, both elected
for terms of four years. Some boroughs and townships have professional
managers.
About 1550 townships cover most of the
state’s land area and provide local government in suburban and rural areas.
First-class townships are governed by township commissioners. Second-class
townships are governed by township supervisors. The state has only one town,
Bloomsburg, which received its special status by an act of the legislature.
E | National Representation |
Pennsylvania elects two United States
senators and 19 members of the United States House of Representatives. It has 21
electoral votes.
VIII | HISTORY |
A | Early Inhabitants |
Before Europeans arrived in what is now
Pennsylvania, the area was inhabited by several major Native American groups. In
the eastern river valleys lived Algonquian-speaking peoples, including the
Delaware, who called themselves the Lenni Lenape, meaning original people. Along
the Susquehanna River were the Susquehannock, a group who spoke an Iroquoian
language. Originally living in the Wyoming Valley along the upper Susquehanna,
the Susquehannock later moved to the lower Susquehanna River basin, until they
were mostly absorbed into the Delaware and Iroquois in the 1670s.
Less well-known native peoples existed
in the western part of Pennsylvania. In the late 17th century the Shawnee began
to migrate into Pennsylvania, and in the early 18th century the Tuscarora and
the Nanticoke passed through on their way north to settle among the Iroquois. By
that time the Iroquois Confederacy, centered in what is now New York, had
established dominance over most of the native groups from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Mississippi River and from the St. Lawrence River to the Tennessee River,
including nearly all the native peoples living in Pennsylvania.
For many years, European settlers in
Pennsylvania lived at peace with the native peoples, who exerted an important
influence on the colony. William Penn, the founder of the colony, treated the
Native Americans as equals and scrupulously paid for land received from the
local chiefs. In a treaty negotiated in 1682 in Philadelphia, he established a
peace and friendship that lasted half a century. Because the Native Americans
aided the early settlers, Penn’s colony suffered no periods of hardship and
starvation, which were common in other colonies. The native groups’ trails were
the original routes by which traders and settlers reached the interior. But
later conflicts, mostly over settlement of traditional native lands, forced the
eventual migration of most Native Americans from the state.
B | Early Explorations and Settlements |
Much of present-day Pennsylvania was
originally included in the land grant for the Virginia colony given in 1606 to
the London Company. About 1615 and 1616 French and Dutch explorers traveled
parts of Pennsylvania. Étienne Brûlé of France claimed to have explored the
Susquehanna River from the north, while Dutch Captain Cornelius Hendricksen
sailed up the Delaware River to its junction with the Schuylkill River. The
Dutch, with headquarters on Manhattan Island, established a trading post on the
Schuylkill in 1633.
Swedes established the first permanent
settlement in Pennsylvania. They had already founded a colony, New Sweden, on
the western shore of Delaware Bay, and in 1643 they moved the colony’s capital
to Tinicum Island near present-day Philadelphia. The Dutch captured New Sweden
in 1655 in a contest over control of Delaware Bay and annexed it to their colony
of New Netherland. In 1664 the British captured New Netherland, renaming the
entire region New York. From this area the colonies of New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Delaware were later formed.
C | Colonial Period |
C1 | Founding of Pennsylvania |
The founder of Pennsylvania was
William Penn, the son of the wealthy English Admiral Sir William Penn. The
younger Penn was a rebellious youth who became a free thinker and joined the
Society of Friends, or Quakers. When his father died in 1670, Penn inherited a
sizable fortune, which he soon began to use to help his fellow Quakers escape
religious persecution in England.
Penn helped create a Quaker colony in
New Jersey, which encouraged him to seek a colony of his own. As payment of a
debt the king owed to Penn’s father, Penn asked King Charles II for a portion of
the New York colony. The king, happy to be rid of both the debt and the Quakers,
consented. On March 4, 1681, the king signed a charter that made Penn proprietor
of Pennsylvania, a name chosen to honor the elder Penn. The grant included much
of present-day Pennsylvania. Penn later asked for and received the Lower
Counties, now Delaware.
Calling his settlement the Holy
Experiment, Penn promised religious toleration and participation in lawmaking to
anyone who wished to settle there. In response to Penn’s advertisements,
English, Welsh, and Dutch Quakers migrated to the colony. They settled much of
the area within 40 km (25 mi) of Philadelphia, which was laid out in 1682 at
Penn’s request by Thomas Holme, the colony’s surveyor general. Early in the
1700s a large influx of Germans arrived, many of them members of such persecuted
religious groups as the Amish, Mennonites, and Schwenkfeldians, followers of
Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig, a dissident 16th-century theologian. They settled
the rich farmland between Philadelphia and the Blue Mountains, a region that
later became known as Pennsylvania Dutch country (Dutch was a corruption
of the word Deutsch, meaning “German”).
Beginning about 1718, large numbers
of Scots-Irish arrived, and by the 1740s they had settled the mountain valleys
beyond the German belt. Many people from Virginia, Maryland, and Connecticut
also settled land that, after boundary adjustments, became part of Pennsylvania.
The colony grew rapidly, from about 20,000 inhabitants in 1700 to 300,000 in
1776. Many different nationalities and religions were represented, but the major
groups remained geographically separate, with the English in the east, Germans
in the middle, and Scots-Irish in the west.
C2 | Colonial Government |
Penn first visited his colony in
1682. The capital had been established at Upland, which Penn renamed Chester. He
later named Philadelphia, which was then under construction, as his
capital.
By the terms of the king’s charter,
the only limit on Penn’s authority in the colony was the right of a popular
assembly to veto his laws. However, Penn was determined to bring the settlers
into the government. His liberal Frame of Government, a written contract between
himself as proprietor and the Pennsylvania colonists, was approved by the
assembly in 1683, then revised that same year to give the settlers even more
voice in the government. Under the new constitution, Penn shared the power to
make laws with an elected council, which formed the upper house of the
legislature. The assembly, or lower house, had the power to veto or approve laws
proposed by the council. The Frame of Government guaranteed freedom of worship,
protection of property, and trial by jury, and granted a role in government to
Christian men over the age of 21 who possessed some property or paid a personal
tax.
From 1692 until 1694, Penn’s right to
govern the colony was revoked by the English monarchs, William III and Queen
Mary, who doubted his loyalty. Penn had been a close friend of King James II,
who had been overthrown and replaced on the throne by William and Mary. The
royal governor of New York governed Pennsylvania as well until the monarchs were
convinced of Penn’s loyalty and restored his authority.
Quarrels between the two houses of
the legislature prompted Penn to alter the government in 1696, giving the
assembly full power to initiate legislation. Finally, in 1701, Penn prepared the
Charter of Privileges, which remained in force until 1776. Under the charter,
the council ceased to have a part in legislation, and the assembly expanded so
that it became more representative of the people’s interests. The assembly,
independent of the governor, scheduled its sessions. The charter also allowed
Delaware to form its own assembly, which it did in 1703.
After Penn’s death in 1718, his
second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, controlled the colony until her death in
1727. Control then passed to three of Penn’s sons, John, Thomas, and Richard
Penn. John Penn drifted away from Quakerism, and the other two sons joined the
Anglican Church. In the 1730s the Quakers, who controlled the provincial
assembly, began a political contest with the Penns that was to last for decades.
They organized as the Antiproprietary Party and sought the support of the
prosperous Germans. The Quakers refused to appropriate money for military
defense, wished to tax the lands the Penns held as proprietors, and tried to
convert Pennsylvania into a royal colony. The Penns, mobilizing their supporters
into the Proprietary Party, demanded appropriations for colonial defense and
formed an alliance with the Scots-Irish, who desired better representation in
the assembly and protection from raids by Native Americans on the western
frontier.
One of the major figures in
Pennsylvania and early American history arrived in Philadelphia in 1723.
Benjamin Franklin, a printer and newspaper editor from Boston, would soon become
a powerful figure in the colony’s politics, as well as a noted author,
scientist, and philosopher.
C3 | Expansion and Land Conflicts |
The powerful and highly organized
Iroquois Confederacy, which acted as an overlord of other Native American groups
in Pennsylvania, usually dealt with the colony’s leaders on issues that affected
the Shawnee and Delaware. The colonists welcomed the Iroquois’s influence and
saw them as an ally against the French in Canada during the 17th and 18th
centuries.
In 1737 the Iroquois’s agent in
Pennsylvania, Chief John Shikellamy, helped the Pennsylvania government take
over much of the Delaware and Shawnee land in the so-called Walking Purchase,
which granted the colonists a strip of land defined by how far a man could walk
in a day and a half. By Native American custom, this meant about 50 km (30 mi),
but the colonists used trained athletes to claim 100 km (60 mi), covering nearly
all of the Delaware homeland. When the Delaware protested, the Iroquois
humiliated them and told them to leave the region. Filled with resentment over
the fraudulent land deal, many of the Shawnee and Delaware migrated to western
Pennsylvania and Ohio and became allies of the French, who promised them a
chance for revenge against the British and colonists.
In 1754 the Pennsylvania colonists
signed another treaty with the Iroquois to purchase a large tract of land west
of the Susquehanna. The land was occupied by the Shawnee, Delaware, and Seneca,
one of the Iroquois tribes, but their protests were ignored. The two deals set
the stage for the dispossessed native groups to join the French and attack the
colonies in the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
C4 | French and Indian War |
From the late 1600s, France and Great
Britain fought a series of wars for control of territory in North America. The
last of these wars, called the French and Indian War, began on Pennsylvania soil
in July 1754. As British traders and settlers pushed into the Ohio River valley,
the French began building a chain of forts to establish control over the area.
Virginia, which claimed some of the area, sent an armed force under the command
of George Washington to expel the French. Washington was defeated at the Battle
of Fort Necessity, near present-day Uniontown.
In the summer of 1755 British General
Edward Braddock led troops to attack France’s Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the
Ohio River. But the French and their Native American allies ambushed and
defeated Braddock’s forces, which withdrew to Philadelphia. The French then
persuaded the Delaware and Shawnee to seek revenge for their lost lands. The
Native Americans attacked the unprotected Pennsylvania frontier, killing
settlers, burning houses, and sending refugees flooding into eastern
Pennsylvania. Facing this crisis, the colonial assembly approved funds for
military defense. The colony built a line of forts from Easton on the Delaware
River to Chambersburg in the Cumberland Valley. In September 1756 Colonel John
Armstrong struck back, destroying the Delaware’s main village at Kittanning. In
November 1758 General John Forbes ended French control of western Pennsylvania
by capturing Fort Duquesne, which he renamed Pittsburgh. Under a peace agreement
with the Iroquois, the colony gave back the land purchased in 1754, ending
attacks by the Delaware and Shawnee.
The British defeated the French in
1760. Peace was made by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which gave Britain all of
France’s North American territory. Colonial leaders and British officials
promised the Native Americans that no more white settlements would be made in
native lands west of the Appalachian crest, but the pledges were broken and
settlements expanded. In an effort to drive out the British, the Ottawa
chieftain Pontiac led an uprising in May 1763 by an alliance of many native
groups. Pontiac’s forces captured all but 4 of 14 British forts extending from
the Pennsylvania frontier to Lake Superior. Western Pennsylvania again suffered
attacks, until Colonel Henry Bouquet defeated Native Americans at Bushy Run in
August 1763.
In retaliation for attacks during
Pontiac’s war, a group of colonists called the Paxton boys attacked a small
settlement of Susquehannocks in 1763 at Conestoga, near Lancaster. Although
these Native Americans had not taken part in the war, the Paxton boys massacred
20 old men, women, and children.
In 1768 a new treaty with the Native
Americans was signed at Fort Stanwix, under which the native peoples sold their
interest in lands west of the Allegheny Mountains. Many of them migrated west,
leaving few Native Americans in Pennsylvania.
C5 | Movement for Independence |
To repay heavy debts from the wars
with the French and to cover the costs of guarding the frontier, Britain passed
laws restricting trade and imposing higher taxes in the colonies and began to
enforce laws passed earlier (See also Navigation Acts, Sugar and Molasses
Act, Stamp Act). These actions prompted growing protests in the colonies, but in
Pennsylvania the issue was complicated by the continuing conflict between the
proprietary government and its opponents in the Quaker-dominated assembly, who
were now led by Franklin. For a time the assembly hoped to eliminate the
proprietors by making the colony a royal colony, so protests against British
taxes were not as strong as in other colonies. However, the farmers and
frontiersmen of western Pennsylvania became increasingly radical and
dissatisfied with the British and colonial governments, in which they had little
voice.
Protests flared again after
Parliament passed the Townshend Acts in 1767, imposing taxes on glass, tea,
paper, and other imported products and strengthening royal authority over the
colonies. Philadelphia lawyer John Dickinson published 12 popular essays that
restated the colonists’ position that Parliament had no right to tax them, and
colonists boycotted imported British goods.
The Townshend Acts were repealed in
1770, but Parliament retained the tax on tea to assert its right to tax the
colonies. In 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act, reducing the tax on tea shipped
to the colonies so that the English East India Company could sell it in America
and avoid bankruptcy. The colonists, however, refused to buy the English tea,
both on principle and because colonial merchants feared the East India Company
would put them out of business. Boston residents dumped tea into their harbor in
the Boston Tea Party, and Philadelphians threatened to tar and feather the
captain of the British tea ship Polly, forcing him to return to Britain
with his cargo.
In the fall of 1774 Philadelphia,
then the largest city in North America, was the site of the First Continental
Congress, which assembled to protest British retaliatory laws against
Massachusetts for the destruction of tea in Boston. The congress chose Dickinson
to draft a formal colonial protest against British policy, although he and other
moderates in Pennsylvania opposed a violent break with Britain. The radical
forces that supported independence gradually took over Pennsylvania’s government
in 1775 and 1776, and they organized action committees, established their own
provincial conference, and mobilized the colony for war.
The Second Continental Congress
convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. Franklin, after 11 years as
Pennsylvania’s agent in Britain, returned to the colony and served as a delegate
to the congress. In June 1776 the radical provincial conference ordered
Pennsylvania’s delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence.
The Declaration of Independence, which Franklin helped to draft, was adopted on
July 4 in the State House, now called Independence Hall.
At the same time, Pennsylvania’s
provincial conference called a constitutional convention, which on July 11
assumed the responsibility for Pennsylvania’s government. A new constitution was
adopted, which was seen as the most democratic yet in America. It gave the vote
to all free white men who paid taxes, eliminating the requirement that voters be
property owners. Representation in the one-house Assembly would be based on each
county’s population, and an executive council replaced an appointed governor.
The constitution also made Pennsylvania a commonwealth.
D | Revolutionary War |
Pennsylvania’s first military action
during the American Revolution occurred in 1776, when General George
Washington’s army, retreating from New Jersey, set up quarters on the western
bank of the Delaware River. On December 25, 1776, Washington recrossed the
Delaware and defeated the British at Trenton, New Jersey. In the late summer of
1777 the British, under General William Howe, invaded Pennsylvania via
Chesapeake Bay and marched on Philadelphia, then the national capital.
Washington’s army was defeated at the Battle of the Brandywine on September 11.
The Continental Congress fled from Philadelphia, first to Lancaster and then to
York, where it remained until June 27, 1778. As the British advanced on
Philadelphia, General Anthony Wayne of Pennsylvania attacked the British supply
lines but lost his small troop of raiders in a surprise attack known as the
Paoli Massacre.
British forces entered the city on
September 27. Washington sought to dislodge them, but he was defeated in the
Battle of Germantown on October 4 and retired to winter quarters at Valley Forge
in December. During the Valley Forge encampment in the bitter winter of
1777-1778, hardship and rigorous training forged a dependable army and created a
new spirit of national patriotism among the troops. In the following summer the
British evacuated Philadelphia, the congress returned to the city, and the war
moved from Pennsylvania to the South. The only remaining fighting in
Pennsylvania took place along its frontier, where the British gained the support
of many Native American groups and raided settlements. The bloodiest episode
occurred at Wyoming in July 1778, where British-led Loyalists and Native
Americans defeated a military force of settlers. Prisoners were tortured and
killed, the settlements were burned, and the civilian population fled.
E | Early Republic |
E1 | The Constitution of the United States |
By 1787 the weaknesses of the
Articles of Confederation, which had been adopted as the basic law of the new
republic in 1781, had become apparent, and a convention met in Philadelphia to
organize a stronger national government. The convention erected the Constitution
of the United States. When it was offered to the states for ratification,
revolutionary leaders of Pennsylvania strongly opposed it because they still
feared centralized government. However, the moderates in the state, who had
gained power, succeeded in securing its passage, and on December 12, 1787,
Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
Enthusiasm for the U.S. Constitution
inspired a movement to write a new state constitution. The state constitution of
1776, created by colonists fighting against centralized authority, had
established a government that lacked force and stability. It consisted of a
unicameral legislature, elected annually, and an executive council that replaced
the governor. The weaknesses of this structure had soon become apparent. In
September 1790 a state convention proclaimed a constitution modeled on the
federal document. It provided for a bicameral legislature and an elected
governor, who had power to appoint judges and other officials, control the
militia, and veto legislation. The governor could serve three terms of three
years each. The basic structure of Pennsylvania government changed little after
1790. The constitutions of 1838 and 1874 altered only details.
E2 | Financial Center |
Philadelphia had been the banking
capital of the colonies before the American Revolution. Philadelphia merchants
Robert Morris and Haym Salomon oversaw the financing of the war for
independence, making loans and negotiating foreign subsidies. After the
Constitution was ratified, Philadelphia served as the national capital from 1790
to 1800 and also as the financial center of the nation. The city was the
headquarters for the first and second Banks of the United States, and the U.S.
Mint was opened there in 1792.
E3 | Decline of Federalist Power |
Pennsylvania voters at first
supported the Federalist Party, which advocated a strong federal government and
organized the movement to draft the U.S. Constitution. But they soon turned
against the party, especially after President George Washington sent troops to
suppress the Whiskey Rebellion by western Pennsylvania farmers in 1794. The
farmers, whose livelihood depended on growing grain and distilling it into
whiskey, organized resistance when the federal government imposed a tax on the
liquor. Putting down the rebellion marked the first test of the federal
government’s law-enforcement power, but it alienated most of Pennsylvania’s
Scots-Irish population. A similar deployment of troops, against eastern
Pennsylvania Germans who resisted a property tax in Fries’ Rebellion of 1799,
caused that group to ally with the Scots-Irish (see Fries, John).
Together these groups became anti-Federalist, actively promoted the election of
Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800, and put an end to the power of the
Pennsylvania Federalists. Jefferson’s followers, the Democratic-Republican
Party, dominated state politics so completely that two-party contests ceased.
They were replaced by struggles between factions of Jefferson’s party, which
came to be known simply as the Democratic Party.
E4 | Jacksonian Influence |
Pennsylvania supported the war effort
during the War of 1812 (1812-1815), fought between Britain and the United States
over the maritime rights of neutral powers. Albert Gallatin, a Pennsylvania
congressman and financier, served as secretary of the treasury until 1814, then
played a prominent role in peace negotiations that ended the conflict. In 1812
the state capital was established at Harrisburg.
After the war, Pennsylvania’s
Jeffersonian factions agreed on many issues: They supported high tariffs to
protect American industries from competition, public aid for such internal
improvements as roads and canals, and a federally chartered bank. They disagreed
mainly about who should hold important offices. In the disputed presidential
election of 1824, voters were split between John Quincy Adams and Andrew
Jackson. Jackon, who gained fame as a hero in the War of 1812, portrayed himself
as a champion of the common people. Although Jackson won the most electoral
votes in the election, no candidate won a majority, and Adams won the presidency
when the issue was decided by the House of Representatives. Pennsylvania’s
Jeffersonians then became two different parties, one favoring Adams and the
other, stronger faction favoring Jackson, who won election as president in
1828.
When Jackson, as president, proved an
enemy to internal improvements, higher tariffs, and the second Bank of the
United States—which was based in Philadelphia—he ruined many local Pennsylvania
politicians. By 1835 the Jacksonians lost control of state politics to a union
of the Whig Party, whose purpose was to oppose Jackson, and the Anti-Masonic
Party, which formed to oppose the influence of Freemasons in politics, claiming
the fraternal group was antidemocratic.
In addition to Jackson’s antibank
policy, a major issue that occupied Pennsylvanians during the 1820s and 1830s
was building and managing a huge state-owned network of canals and railroads,
the Pennsylvania State Works. In 1834 the state established a public school
system.
F | The Slavery Issue |
As in most Northern states,
Pennsylvania had strong antislavery sentiments from the earliest days of
settlement. The Quakers had sought to abolish slavery since 1688, and in 1780
the legislature outlawed slavery. Beginning in the 1840s, slavery became the
dominant political issue in the nation, and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia became
centers of abolitionist activity. In 1838 abolitionists and other reform groups
built Pennsylvania Hall, a meeting place dedicated to free speech, but
proslavery rioters burned it down within days of its opening. In 1846
Pennsylvania Representative David Wilmot introduced in Congress an amendment,
called the Wilmot Proviso, to exclude slavery from any territory acquired as a
result of the Mexican War (1846-1848). The measure heightened tensions between
Northern and Southern states and was later adopted by the Free-Soil and the
Republican parties as a basic policy.
The Compromise Measures of 1850, passed
by Congress to reconcile proslavery and antislavery factions in the country,
included a strict Fugitive Slave Law that provided for runaway slaves to be
returned to their masters. When a Maryland slave owner tried to use the law in
1851 to recapture several slaves in southeastern Pennsylvania, a conflict known
as the Christiana Riot broke out and the slave owner was killed. The image of
armed resistance to federal authority in defense of runaway slaves foreshadowed
the larger national crisis of the American Civil War (1861-1865).
The Underground Railroad, a network of
antislavery activists who helped fugitive slaves reach safety in the North,
became more active in Pennsylvania, especially along the state’s southern border
with Maryland, which was known as the Mason-Dixon Line. In 1854 Congress passed
the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which authorized creation of those two territories and
had the effect of repealing the 1820 ban on slavery in new territories north of
the Mason-Dixon Line, or parallel 36°30’ (see Missouri Compromise). This
action so angered Pennsylvania abolitionists that they responded eagerly to the
call for a new antislavery party. As in other states, slavery opponents in
Pennsylvania held a mass meeting, which convened in Pittsburgh in 1855, to
organize the Republican Party in the state. The first Republican national
nominating convention was held in Philadelphia in June 1856.
G | Civil War |
In 1860 the Republicans nominated
Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. It was feared that a Republican could not
win in Democratic Pennsylvania, so the Republican Party abandoned its name in
Pennsylvania and presented Lincoln as the candidate of the People’s Party,
capturing the support of many voters who would not have voted for a Republican
abolitionist. Pennsylvania Republicans split into two factions dominated by
rival politicians: Andrew Gregg Curtin, elected governor in 1860, and Simon
Cameron, a U.S. senator.
Lincoln’s election and the continuing
conflicts between the North and South over slavery and states’ rights led to the
outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Most Pennsylvanians, regardless of
their party, vigorously supported the Union. Cameron became Lincoln’s first
secretary of war. In 1862 Curtin played a leading role in the Altoona
Conference, where Northern governors pledged to support a national draft. In
addition to its militia, Pennsylvania supplied more than 375,000 men to the
Union Army and Navy. Philadelphia financier Jay Cooke relieved the hard-pressed
Treasury Department by marketing federal bonds, raising more than $1 billion in
loans for the federal government during the war. Factories in Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia produced huge amounts of heavy weapons and small arms.
Pennsylvania was the site of a major
turning point of the war, the Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July
3, 1863. The battle, which left more than 23,000 Union casualties and at least
25,000 Confederate casualties, halted the Southern army’s invasion of the North
and put it on the defensive. On November 19, Lincoln delivered his famous
speech, the Gettysburg Address, at the dedication of the Gettysburg National
Cemetery near the battlefield.
H | Industry and Labor |
From the time of its founding,
Pennsylvania possessed a diversified economy. Its farmers made the state the
breadbasket of the colonies. Milling, mining, printing, and shipbuilding were
among the commonwealth’s early industries. Philadelphia expanded as a
manufacturing center, producing cotton and silk textiles, iron machinery, and
pharmaceutical chemicals.
Vast resources of coal, iron, and
petroleum, combined with a transportation network, made Pennsylvania an
important industrial state after the Civil War. In the 1840s railroads became
the major means of transportation and an important industry, carrying coal and
other products. By 1850 the Pennsylvania Railroad was the nation’s largest rail
system and the world’s largest freight carrier. Its leaders wielded great power
over the state legislature.
The face and economy of America were
transformed after 1859 with the discovery of oil at Titusville in the state’s
northwest corner. In addition to spurring regional growth, oil quickly led to
the creation of the refinery industry and the development of multimillion-dollar
corporations, especially the Standard Oil Company founded by John D.
Rockefeller. By 1879 Rockefeller held about 95 percent of the country’s
oil-refining capacity and controlled much of the world market for oil
products.
A similar concentration of power
prevailed in the iron and steel industry, which was dominated by Andrew
Carnegie. After building the largest steel mill in the world near Pittsburgh,
Carnegie created a business empire that controlled every phase of steel
processing, from mines that provided raw material to ships and rail cars that
delivered the finished product. He sold his company in 1901 to the newly formed
United States Steel Corporation, which soon became the world’s leading steel
producer.
As an industrial center, Pennsylvania
played a major role in the development of the labor movement and became the site
for some of the largest confrontations between giant companies and workers. Much
of the labor for the steel mills and coal mines came from a wave of immigration
after the Civil War, which brought about 25 million people into the United
States by 1920. Earlier immigrants had come mostly from northern Europe, but
after the war Russians, Italians, Poles, and other Eastern European laborers
transformed the social fabric of the state. They faced dangerous work in the
mines, steel plants and on the railroads, and often lived under harsh conditions
controlled by their employers. Steel and oil-refinery workers often labored 12
hours a day, seven days a week. Joining together in unions, workers sought
higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions.
Unions for specific skilled crafts
developed early in the 1800s in the state’s larger cities. In 1869, a
Philadelphia garment worker, Uriah S. Stephens, helped found one of the first
major national unions, the Knights of Labor. It offered membership to workers of
all trades and backgrounds and at its peak in the mid-1880s had about 700,000
members. Stephens was succeeded in 1883 as leader of the union by Terence
Vincent Powderly, who also served as mayor of Scranton.
The first national strike in the
United States occurred in July 1877. Shortly after cutting wages, the
Pennsylvania Railroad ordered the running of more “doubleheaders,” trains with
twice the normal numbers of cars but no extra workers. Rail workers in
Pittsburgh refused to handle the trains, and the local militia, called out to
break the strike, sided with the workers. A militia brought in from Philadelphia
fired on demonstrators, killing about 20, and were attacked by an enraged crowd,
which burned railroad buildings and looted cars. The strike spread to other
railroads from Baltimore to Saint Louis, shutting down two-thirds of the
nation’s track. The president repeatedly called out federal troops to restore
order as riots occurred in Pittsburgh, Reading, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre. With
no central organization, the strike ended by August, after hundreds of strikers
and other people had been killed.
Another source of violence was a
secret society named the Molly Maguires, formed after the Civil War by Irish
immigrant coal miners. The group organized a campaign of violence against
mineowners, police that were controlled by the companies, and others the miners
considered their oppressors. In 1877 railroad executive Franklin B. Gowen used
private detectives and an industry police force to smash the Molly Maguires. Two
dozen of the group’s members were convicted of crimes and hanged.
Continuing problems in the anthracite
coal area gave rise to the United Mine Workers union, which brought together
skilled miners and immigrant mine laborers. In 1902 the union went on strike for
five months, seeking higher wages and safer working conditions, while the mine
owners refused to negotiate. The strike ended when President Theodore Roosevelt
intervened, forcing the mine owners to accept arbitration and setting a pattern
for nonviolent arbitration between labor and management.
In the steel industry, however, unions
suffered a violent setback in the Homestead Strike of 1892 against a
Carnegie-owned plant east of Pittsburgh. The company tried to cut wages and,
when the union wouldn’t agree, locked workers out of the plant. The Amalgamated
Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers then went on strike. The company
hired 300 armed guards, and several people were killed in a violent
confrontation. The governor called out the state militia, strikebreakers were
brought in, and after nearly five months workers returned to the job. Another
strike in 1919 included at its height about half the nation’s steel workers, but
it also failed. The effort to organize steelworkers slowed until the 1930s.
One of the worst floods in the country
occurred May 31, 1889, when a dam broke and sent a huge wall of water pouring
through Johnstown, killing more than 2,200 people.
I | Civil War to Depression |
The domination of Pennsylvania
politics by the Democrats from 1800 to 1860 was followed by a long era of
Republican Party control. Between 1860 and 1935, only one Democrat, Robert E.
Pattison, served as governor (1883-1887, 1891-1895). By 1872 Simon Cameron had
won command of the state Republican organization. After that date four
successive U.S. senators from Pennsylvania managed the state party: Cameron, his
son James Donald Cameron, Matthew Stanley Quay, and Boies Penrose. These men
directed a political machine that dictated nominations and won elections with
remarkable consistency.
In the early 1900s Pennsylvania, like
much of the country, was influenced by the Progressive movement, which sought to
curb abuses by governments and industry and to improve life for workers, the
poor, and other groups. Reformers passed laws to clean up corrupt election
practices, limit child labor in mines and factories, compensate workers injured
on the job, and establish a civil service system.
From 1900 to 1910 Pennsylvania saw its
largest population increase ever as immigrants continued to pour in from Europe.
Large numbers of Southern blacks also migrated to Pennsylvania during and after
World War I (1914-1918). Pennsylvania supplied more than 300,000 men for the
armed forces during World War I, and its shipyards, mills, and factories
provided a large amount of the nation’s war materials.
An important transition occurred in
the early 1920s, when the rule by political machine ended and a moderate reform
tradition took over. Boies Penrose, the last of the state Republican Party
bosses, died in 1921. The following year the Republican reform candidate Gifford
Pinchot, a conservationist and former head of the federal forestry department,
was elected governor. Pinchot reorganized state government and intervened in
strikes in the anthracite coal industry, helping miners achieve an eight-hour
workday and higher wages.
A period of prosperity ended in the
1930s when the nation entered the economic hard times known as the Great
Depression. Pennsylvania industries such as oil, steel, and coal suffered
dramatic declines, and the steel and coal industries never again surpassed the
production levels of the 1920s. By 1932 an estimated one-third of Pennsylvania
families were on some form of relief. The state Democratic Party supported the
relief efforts and economic programs of President Franklin Roosevelt
(1933-1945), helping the party to win the governor’s office in 1934. When George
Earle was elected governor that year, he became the first Democrat to hold that
office since 1895 and only the second since the Civil War.
Western Pennsylvania became a major
center of union activity in the steel industry in the late 1930s. Democrats in
state and federal office were more sympathetic to organized labor than their
predecessors, and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 guaranteed workers
the right to form unions and bargain collectively. In 1937 the giant U.S. Steel
Corporation recognized the union organization, and in 1942 the United
Steelworkers of America union was formed.
J | World War II |
Pennsylvania mobilized its people and
industries to serve in World War II (1939-1945). About one-eighth of the
population, 1.25 million people, served in the armed forces, and 33,000 were
killed. General George C. Marshall, a native of Uniontown, was army chief of
staff, and later served as U.S. secretary of state, playing an important role in
helping to rebuild the economy of Western Europe. Pennsylvania shipyards
produced and refitted hundreds of navy vessels, while the state’s factories
produced shells, tanks, planes, armored cars, and guns. Black migration from the
South increased again during World War II, and blacks came to represent almost 5
percent of the state’s population.
After a boom during World War II,
Pennsylvania suffered economic decline. The demand for the state’s coal dropped,
leading mines to close and large numbers of residents to move away from the
mining regions around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Many textile workers lost their
jobs when mills became automated or moved to Southern states, where labor was
less expensive. The once-powerful Pennsylvania Railroad merged with another to
become the Penn Central, then went bankrupt in 1970.
K | Recent Developments |
A strong two-party system has
influenced much of 20th-century government in Pennsylvania. The Republican Party
has controlled the governor’s office for much of the century, but power has been
distributed more evenly between the major parties in the General Assembly.
Political trends also reflect the growing divisions between rural and urban
interests, and the ethnic and racial diversity of the urban population.
Since 1960 the Democratic Party has
held a slight majority in the number of registered voters in the state. In the
mid-1950s and 1960s Democrats George M. Leader and David L. Lawrence each served
single terms as governor, and Democrat Milton J. Shapp was elected in 1970,
holding the office until 1979. Following accusations of corruption in Shapp’s
administration, Republican Richard Thornburgh, a former federal prosecutor with
strong reform credentials, was elected governor for two terms beginning in 1979.
A political moderate who later served as U.S. attorney general under President
George Bush (1989-1993), Thornburgh was widely praised for his handling of a
1979 accident at the nuclear power reactor at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg.
The accident, which threatened the release of radioactive gas, caused the
temporary evacuation of nearby residents and led to stricter federal standards
for nuclear-plant designs and emergency-response plans. Thornburgh was succeeded
as governor by another moderate, Democrat Robert Casey of Scranton, who served
until 1994.
Recent political debates in the
General Assembly have often turned on fierce partisan loyalties, as well as
differences between urban and rural representatives. Social and economic changes
also have helped shape legislative battles of the last two decades. Pennsylvania
has seen the continued decline of its coal, steel, and transportation
industries, the disappearance of one in three farms, and the deterioration of
urban areas. Although the steel industry was hit hard in the late 1970s and
1980s by recession and foreign competition, Pennsylvania continued to lead the
nation in steel production. Food processing, manufacturing, and service
industries have grown in importance to the state’s economy.
The 1990s brought a new style of
political conservatism to Pennsylvania, ushering in a period of transition in
state government. In 1994 Republican Rick Santorum defeated Democratic incumbent
Harris Wofford in the U.S. Senate race, and Republican Tom Ridge won election as
governor, both advocating conservative fiscal and social policies. Ridge
supported stricter law enforcement standards, victims’ rights advocacy, and
school choice as the state restricted funding of welfare programs and public
education. Ridge resigned in 2001, in the middle of his second term, after
President George W. Bush appointed him to head a new cabinet-level position, the
Office of Homeland Security. Lieutenant Governor Mark S. Schweiker succeeded
Ridge as governor. In 2002, however, the people of Pennsylvania elected Democrat
Edward G. Rendell, former mayor of Philadelphia, as governor.
The history section of this article
was contributed by Dennis B. Downey. The remainder of the article was
contributed by James Charles Hughes.
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