Culture of Philadelphia - People

People

See also: Demographics of Philadelphia and List of people from Philadelphia

Before the first European settlers arrived, the region that would become Philadelphia was inhabited by the Lenape, a Native American people. The Lenape occasionally fought with the earliest Dutch settlers, but had much better relations with William Penn and the early inhabitants of the English subjects of the colony of Pennsylvania. Still, disease and development pushed the Lenape west.

A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) who had faced religious persecution, Penn envisioned his colony as a place where many groups of people could live together and worship freely. Mennonites, Amish, Moravians and Pietists moved to the area during the 17th century. By the mid-18th century, Quakers and the English had become a minority in the colony as other ethnic groups such as the Welsh, Scots, Finns, African slaves, Irish, and Germans moved to the city. Lutherans established places of worship as early as the 1720s and in 1748, led by Henry Muhlenberg, founded the Pennsylvania Ministerium. In 1734 followers of what would become the Schwenkfelder Church arrived in Philadelphia and settled in the region. The first American Presbytery was founded in 1706 in Philadelphia and a year later in September 1707 the Philadelphia Baptist Association was founded, the oldest Baptist association in the United States. The city's first Catholic chapel was built in 1733 and the city's first recorded practicing Jew, Nathan Levy, arrived as early as 1735.

During most of the 19th century, immigrants mainly from Germany, England and Ireland settled in the city. Many of these immigrants were Catholic which fueled anti-Catholic feelings and organizations. In the 1840s Philadelphia became a major base for anti-Catholic Protestant groups which soon led to deadly riots in 1844. However, by the end of the 19th century Roman Catholics had become the largest religion in Philadelphia. During the last decades of the 19th century the origin of immigrants shifted from England, Ireland and Germany to Italy, Russia and Eastern Europe. Italians and Poles helped increase the city's Catholic population, but Jewish immigrants, mainly from Poland, Lithuania, and Russia, were the largest religion to settle in the city during this period. Supplementing the already settled German Jews, the city's Jewish population swelled from 5,000 in 1881 to 100,000 in 1905. Philadelphia's Italian population changed from 300 in 1870 to 77,000 in 1910. Hungarian and Polish immigrants also settled in the city, but in smaller numbers. In the 20th century political power began to shift from primarily white Protestants to Irish and Italian Catholics and Jews, with the city's first Catholic and Jewish mayors elected in 1963 and 1992 respectively.

In the second half of the 19th century immigration began from Latin America, mainly from Puerto Rico and Cuba. By the end of the 20th century Puerto Ricans became the largest Latino group in Philadelphia. Starting in the 1950s large numbers of Puerto Ricans settling primarily in North Philadelphia. Immigrants from China formed Chinatown in the 1870s and 80s and over the next century the neighborhood grew into a diverse community with immigrants from many Asian countries. By the 21st century Philadelphia's two largest Asian ethnic groups were the Chinese and Koreans. Philadelphia is the earliest recorded east coast city to have a Korean community. The community which went back as far as the 1880s and was made up of mainly political exiles supporting Philip Jaisohn. It wasn't until the end of the 20th century before the Korean population significantly grew. Immigration from the Middle East to Philadelphia began as early as the 1880s with immigrants primarily from Lebanon. Starting in the 1960s immigrants from other Middle Eastern countries, such as Syria, the Palestinian territories and Iraq moved to the city. Other immigrants from Asia during the last decades of the 20th century include Indians, Vietnamese and Cambodians. Another community who established an identity in Philadelphia during the 20th century was the gay community. The city's homosexual community is centered in a portion of Washington Square West, nicknamed the "gayborhood" by residents.