The history of Pennsylvania is as varied as any in the American experience and reflects the salad bowl vision of the United States. Before Pennsylvania was settled by Europeans, the area was home to the Delaware (also known as Lenni Lenape), Susquehannock, Iroquois, Erie, Shawnee and other Native American tribes. Most of these tribes were driven off or reduced to remnants as a result of the European colonization.
It was colonized by Dutch and Swedish settlers; and the former especially brought slaves into the colony. In 1664 the English took over the colony, following its taking control of New Netherland. William Penn established a colony based on religious tolerance; it and its chief city, Philadelphia, were settled by many Quakers. In the mid-eighteenth century, the colony attracted many German and Scots-Irish immigrants; the latter were the largest ethnic group from the British Isles before the American Revolutionary War.
Read more about History Of Pennsylvania: Dutch and Swedish Influence, British Colonial Period, French and Indian War, American Revolution, Statehood and Constitutional Government, Westward Expansion and Land Speculation, Antebellum and Civil War, Industrial Power, 1865-1900, Ethnicity and Labor 1865-1945, Depression and World War II, 1929-1950, Decline of Manufacturing and Mining: 1950-75, Service State: 1975-present
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or pennsylvania:
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The discovery of Pennsylvania’s coal and iron was the deathblow to Allaire. The works were moved to Pennsylvania so hurriedly that for years pianos and the larger pieces of furniture stood in the deserted houses.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)