Pennsylvania in the American Revolution

Washington Crossing the Delaware, an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by artist Emanuel Leutze, dramatizing and symbolically representing George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey in December, 1776.

Pennsylvania was the site of key events and places related to the American Revolution. The state, and especially the city of Philadelphia, played a critical role in the American Revolution.

Founding Father Robert Morris said, "You will consider Philadelphia, from its centrical situation, the extent of its commerce, the number of its artificers, manufactures and other circumstances, to be to the United States what the heart is to the human body in circulating the blood."^[1]

Join, or Die by Benjamin Franklin, published in The Pennsylvania Gazette was the first political cartoon in America^[2]

Military

• Pennsylvania Line of the Continental Army
• Pennsylvania Militia Units
• First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry - The oldest continuously serving unit in the United States military
• Pennsylvania Navy

Government

• Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776
• Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

The March to Valley Forge (1883), famous painting by William Trego - part of the collection of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

Key events

• Philadelphia Tea Party (October 16, 1773)
• First Continental Congress
• Continental Association created (October 20, 1774)
• Petition to the King ratified (October 25, 1774)
• Second Continental Congress
• Hanna's town resolves (May 16, 1775)
• Olive Branch Petition (July 1775)
• Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (July 1775)
• Continental Marines formed by act of Congress (November 10, 1775)
• Declaration of Independence (1776)
• George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River (December 25, 1776)
• Philadelphia Campaign (1777–1778)
• Conway Cabal (1777–1778)
• Battle of Brandywine (September 11, 1777)
• Battle of the Clouds (September 16, 1777)
• Battle of Paoli (Also known as the Paoli Massacre) (September 20, 1777)
• Siege of Fort Mifflin (September 26 to November 16, 1777)
• Battle of Germantown (October 4, 1777)
• Articles of Confederation created (November 15, 1777)
• Battle of White Marsh (December 5–8, 1777)
• Battle of Matson's Ford (December 11, 1777)
• Valley Forge winter encampment (December 1777 to June 1778)
• Battle of Crooked Billet (May 1, 1778)
• The Meschianza (May 18, 1778)
• Battle of Barren Hill (May 20, 1778)
• Carlisle Peace Commission (1778)
• The Big Runaway (June and July 1778)
• Battle of Wyoming (July 3, 1778)
• An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery (March 1, 1780) passed by the Pennsylvania legislature - one of the first attempts by a government in the Western Hemisphere to begin an abolition of slavery
• Sugarloaf Massacre (September 11, 1780)
• Pennsylvania Line Mutiny (January 1, 1781)
• Convention Army moved to Pennsylvania in 1781 (1781 to 1783)
• Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 (June 20, 1783)

Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge (Issac Potts House)

Key historical sites, museums, and institutions

• Brandywine Battlefield Historic Site (Delaware and Chester Counties) - Historic park and museum that includes headquarters locations of Generals Washington and Lafayette from the Battle of Brandywine (September 11, 1777). In addition to Brandywine Battlefield Historic Site owned by the state, some of the actual battle locations of the Battle of Brandywine are preserved as municipal parks.
• Camp Security Park (Springettsbury Township, York County, PA) - site of the 1781 to 1783 Prisoner of War camp for prisoners from the Convention Army - Crown forces (largely German auxiliaries - commonly called "Hessians").
• Carpenters' Hall (Philadelphia, PA) - Meeting site of First Continental Congress (1774).
• Cliveden (Benjamin Chew House) (Philadelphia, PA) - Site of part of the Battle of Germantown (1777).
• Fort Mifflin (Philadelphia, PA) - Site of the Siege of Fort Mifflin, which delayed the entry of the British Navy into the Port of Philadelphia, allowing the successful repositioning of the Continental Army for the Battle of White Marsh and subsequent withdrawal to Valley Forge.
• Fort Pitt Museum (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Gen. Horatio Gates House and Golden Plough Tavern (York, PA) - Historic site and interpretive center centered around the Continental Congress's temporary relocation from Philadelphia to York, where the Articles of Confederation were drafted and adopted.
• Graeme Park (Historic Site in Horsham, Montgomery County, PA)
• Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
• Hope Lodge (Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania)
• Independence National Historical Park (Including: Independence Hall, City Tavern, Franklin Court and Benjamin Franklin Museum, First Bank of the United States, Liberty Bell, and others) (Philadelphia, PA)
• Library Company of Philadelphia - Library founded by Benjamin Franklin with extensive historical archives and book holdings, as well as exhibits.
• Museum of the American Revolution (Philadelphia, PA) - Museum presenting the history of the American Revolution through interpretive programs, permanent exhibits, and temporary exhibits.
• Paoli Battlefield Historical Park (Malvern, PA) - Site of the Paoli Massacre
• Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial (Philadelphia, PA) - Historic site commemorating and interpreting the contributions of Tadeusz Kościuszko - Continental Army general and engineer.
• Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier (Philadelphia, PA)
• Valley Forge National Historical Park (Montgomery and Chester Counties, PA) - National Park Service unit preserving the site and interpreting the history of the Valley Forge Encampment of the Continental Army, 1777-1778, including Washington's Headquarters.
• Washington Crossing Historic Park (Washington Crossing, Bucks County, PA) - Historic site and museum interpreting the crossing of the Delaware River by the Continental Army, December 25-26, 1776, for its surprise attack on Trenton.
• Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route - Historic trail that passes through Pennsylvania, interpreting and marking the route of forces under George Washington and Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau during their 1781 march from Newport, Rhode Island to the site of the decisive Siege of Yorktown, Virginia.

The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Significant documents originating in Pennsylvania during the Revolution

• Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania - a series of essays written by the Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator John Dickinson, leading up to the start of the Revolutionary War (1767 - 1768)
• Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress (1774)
• Petition to the King - a petition sent to King George III by the First Continental Congress, calling for repeal of the Intolerable Acts (1774)
• Olive Branch Petition - adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 5, 1775, and signed on July 8, in a final attempt to avoid a full-scale war between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America (1775)
• Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775)
• Common Sense - pamphlet by Thomas Paine (1775-1776)
• Declaration of Independence (1776)
• The American Crisis - pamphlet series by Thomas Paine (1776-1777)
• Articles of Confederation - adopted by the Continental Congress at their temporary meeting location of York, PA while Philadelphia was under occupation by Crown forces (1777)
• Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778)
• An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery (1780)
• The Captivity of Benjamin Gilbert and His Family, 1780-83 - a captivity narrative by William Walton relating the experiences of a Quaker family of settlers near Mauch Chunk in present-day Carbon County, Pennsylvania. (1784)
• Pennsylvania Archives (A series of books published between 1838 and 1935 by acts of the Pennsylvania legislature - creating an official archive covering the early history of Pennsylvania, including many documents from the American Revolution - unrelated to the state agency, the Pennsylvania State Archives)

See also

• History of Pennsylvania
• History of Philadelphia
• Province of Pennsylvania
• Thirteen Colonies
• Pennsylvania Chronicle
• Pennsylvania Gazette
• Pennsylvania Packet, the first successful daily newspaper published in the United States

References

Further reading

• Fleming, Thomas. Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge. 2005. ISBN 0060829621.
• Fischer, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing. 2006. ISBN 019518159X.
• Frantz, John B. and Pencak, William. Beyond Philadelphia: The American Revolution in the Pennsylvania Hinterland. 1998. ISBN 0271017678.
• Knouff, Gregory T. The Soldiers' Revolution: Pennsylvanians in Arms and the Forging of Early American Identity. 2003. ISBN 027102335X.
• Lockhart, Paul. The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army. 2010. ISBN 0061451649.
• McGuire, Thomas J. Battle of Paoli. 2000. ISBN 0811701980.
• McGuire, Thomas J. The Philadelphia Campaign: Volume One: Brandywine and the Fall of Philadelphia. 2006. ISBN 0811701786.
• McGuire, Thomas J. The Philadelphia Campaign: Volume Two: Germantown and the Roads to Valley Forge. 2007. ISBN 0811702065.
• Nagy, John A. Spies in the Continental Capital: Espionage Across Pennsylvania During the American Revolution. 2011. ISBN 159416133X.
• Pencak, William. Pennsylvania's Revolution. 2010. ISBN 027103579X.
• Seymour, Joseph. The Pennsylvania Associators, 1747-1777. Westholme Publishing. 2012. ISBN 978-1594161605.
• Linn, John Blair and Egle, William H. Pennsylvania in the War of the Revolution: Battalions and Line, 1775-1783, Volume 1. 1880. OCLC 1850676.
• Linn, John Blair and Egle, William H. Pennsylvania in the War of the Revolution: Associated Battalions and Militia, 1775-1783, Volume 2. 1880. OCLC 1850676.

External links

• Bibliography of the Continental Army in Pennsylvania compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History
• The Online Books Page: Pennsylvania - History - Revolution, 1775-1783 - bibliography of books available online (By the University of Pennsylvania Library)