Where Is Pennsylvania?

Where Is Pennsylvania?


In 1976, a popular movie called Rocky told the story of an Italian American boxer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, getting the chance to fight the world heavyweight champion. Rocky is the underdog—very unlikely to win—but he tries anyway. He trains hard to get ready, easily running up the seventy-two steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and raising his fists. He’s ready to take on his opponent—and the world.

The boxing match takes place in Philadelphia as part of the Bicentennial, or two hundredth anniversary, of the United States of America’s independence. The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia, in a building called Independence Hall, in 1776. In 1976, these celebrations were happening in real life, not just the movie!

Today, there is a statue of Rocky at the bottom of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps. Nearby, Independence Hall still stands. Two hundred years apart, both represent the spirit of determination that built Pennsylvania and have inspired generations to dream against all odds.

Chapter 1
Early Pennsylvania


The year was 1681, and William Penn had an unusual opportunity. King Charles II of England (also known as Britain) owed Penn’s family a lot of money. Since the King didn’t have much money, he offered Penn land in North America instead. The king’s debt was paid with about forty thousand square miles of forested land along the Delaware River. That land would one day form part of the state of Pennsylvania.

At the time of William Penn’s arrival, almost all the land was covered with forests. With animals to hunt for food, soil good for growing crops, and many streams and rivers, it had everything people needed to live. The land was filled with hills and mountains, including what are known today as the Blue Ridge Mountains and Allegheny Mountains. Forests covered flat-topped mountains known today as the Poconos in the eastern part of the state. But it wasn’t all mountains: William Penn lived in southeastern Pennsylvania, which was near sea level and rather flat.

The Delaware River ran through the land. Today, the river forms the eastern border of Pennsylvania along the states of New York and New Jersey. The Susquehanna River flows south through Pennsylvania until it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Pennsylvania’s third major river is the Ohio. The city of Pittsburgh now stands at the meeting of the Ohio with two other rivers. Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, forms the border between Pennsylvania and Canada.

Pennsylvania summers are often hot and humid. Fall brings bright colors as the leaves change. Most of the state has cold and even harsh winters. When William Penn arrived, white-tailed deer, ruffed grouse, and fireflies thrived in dense forests as well as fields. Brook trout lived in small creeks, rushing rivers, and lakes. Eastern hellbenders, a kind of amphibian, lived in cold, clear streams. Today, Pennsylvania’s state animals share the land with many more people than they did when Penn arrived.

Indigenous people lived in Pennsylvania for thousands of years before William Penn traveled there. The Lenape (say: la-NAH-pay) was the first and largest nation to live in what is known today as eastern Pennsylvania. Lenape people lived in small villages where they hunted, fished, farmed, and foraged. They also made clothing, jewelry, and furniture. In their language of Unami (say: YOO-nah-mee), Lenape means “The People.”

The Iroquois (say: IR-ah-kwoi) Confederacy lived on the land known today as Pennsylvania and included the Seneca (say: SE-ni-kah), Erie, and Oneida (say: OH-nigh-dah) Nations. They lived in longhouses (wooden homes up to one hundred feet long). As many as sixty people lived in each one. Iroquois people created villages with many longhouses near one another and celebrated forms of art like storytelling and music. The Iroquois people spoke multiple languages.

Other Indigenous groups, such as the Monongahela (say: mah-nahn-gah-HEE-la), Shawnee, and Susquehannock (say: suh-skwah-HAN-nok) Nations, also lived in this region.

William Penn had a plan for this land he’d been given by the king. He wanted to form a new colony and call it Sylvania (which means “forest” in Latin). The king wished to honor Penn’s father, so they agreed to call the colony Pennsylvania.

William Penn was a Quaker. Quakerism is a Christian religious movement that was founded in England in the 1650s. Penn’s Quaker beliefs meant he believed in the equality of all people, and he opposed war. The British government did not agree with the Quakers. Penn was jailed four times for his beliefs, even though he knew the king. Penn wanted Pennsylvania to welcome all people, including Quakers and those of other faiths.

By this time, the land already had European settlements. Henry Hudson was one of the first Europeans to visit Pennsylvania when he sailed up the Delaware River in 1609. A few years later, more people arrived. At first, Lenape representatives allowed for a temporary Dutch settlement and welcomed trade with settlers. People from Sweden, the Netherlands, and Britain came to live on the land. The colonists brought diseases that killed many Indigenous people, and they often didn’t honor the agreements they had made with Indigenous nations.

Penn wanted Pennsylvania to be a safe place for the Lenape and other Indigenous peoples. He made new laws. Penn and Chief Tamanend of the Lenape signed many treaties, or agreements, together. One formalized the purchase of land from the Lenape people and declared peace, which both Chief Tamanend and William Penn wanted. Penn paid for the land with goods that the chief shared with the Lenape.

Penn’s plan brought even more immigrants to Pennsylvania. Colonists came from Britain, Scottland, Holland, Germany, and Ireland. Penn founded a city called Philadelphia. As children were born across the colony, the European population grew.

When William Penn died in 1718, his son Thomas was left in charge of the colony. He didn’t practice the same Quaker religion as his father. He tricked the Lenape into giving land to Pennsylvania. Britain wanted more land for the colonies, too. They fought France over it from 1754 to 1763 in a conflict called the French and Indian War. When Britain won the war, they claimed even more land for Pennsylvania.

European and colonial leaders wanted more space and made agreements without respect for Lenape leaders, expelling them from their land. As the settler population increased, food became more scarce. Indigenous groups had to find new hunting grounds and resources to survive.

Like the other colonies in North America, Pennsylvania was ruled by Britain. Over time, Britain and its king asked colonists to pay higher taxes while refusing to give them any say in the British government or its laws. In 1774, representatives from twelve colonies met in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. The group wrote a letter to King George III about their concerns. The British king ignored the letter. So they wrote another. The king and government still didn’t listen. Most colonists agreed they would have to separate from Britain. That meant war.

The American Revolution began in 1775. The next year, a group including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin once again met in Philadelphia to write a letter from the thirteen colonies to the king. This letter was called the Declaration of Independence and explained why the colonies wanted to be free from Britain. It listed the ways the British government and their king had been unfair to colonists and introduced the name of their new country: United States of America.

The thirteen colonies became a nation on July 4, 1776. Clang! Clang! Clang! A three-foot-tall bell rang out in Philadelphia to announce freedom from Britain and celebrate the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Known today as the Liberty Bell, it is a favorite stop for visitors from around the world.

The British didn’t want to give up their land or the money they took through taxation. The countries continued to battle for years. On September 11, 1777, the Revolutionary War came to Pennsylvania. The Battle of Brandywine was the largest one-day battle of the war. As many as thirty thousand soldiers participated. The outnumbered colonist soldiers, called the Continental army, lost. But the Battle of Brandywine proved their toughness and convinced France to support them. France’s decision changed the outcome of the war.

The commander in chief of the Continental army, George Washington, withdrew from Philadelphia. The army set up camp in Valley Forge, about twenty miles from the city. The soldiers built log huts. Each cabin housed about twenty men but was only fourteen by sixteen feet in size! They built miles of trenches, paths, and roads. It was a brutally cold winter, and the army had very few warm clothes or shoes. Straw from local fields was used for bedding since there weren’t enough blankets. The army was running out of food.

Finally, help arrived. A German baker wisely used a small amount of flour to make as much bread as possible. With training and support from France, the Continental army became a fighting force. They learned new skills and fought as a unified force.

The war lasted until 1783 when the United States of America finally won their freedom. Pennsylvania officially became a state when its representatives signed the US Constitution in 1787.