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Pennsylvania in the Revolution
Philidelphia was the nations capital and it played a key part in the revolution until the capital was moved to baltimore lancaster and york. In york congress approved the articles of conferderation which was the first step towards creating a national government. -
Achieving Final State Borders
The Continental Congress convened a special tribunal at Trenton, N.J. in 1782, which resolved the territorial dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania by accepting Pennsylvania's 1681 land entitlement over the claims of Connecticut and the Susquehannah Company. The status of land titles already granted in northeastern Pennsylvania by the Susquehannah Company and Connecticut was not fully resolved until 1809. -
Pennsylvania and the US. Constitution
Because of a lack of central power, as well as insurmountable financial difficulties, the Articles of Confederation could no longer bind together the newly independent states. As a result, the Federal Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787. The structure that evolved remains the basis of our government today. -
Roads
The settlement of new regions of the state was accompanied by provisions for new roads. The original Lancaster Pike connecting Philadelphia with Lancaster was completed in 1794. By 1832, the state led the nation in improved roads, having more than 3,000 miles. The National or Cumberland Road was a major route for western movement before 1850. Between 1811 and 1818 the section of this road in Pennsylvania was built through Somerset, Fayette, and Washington counties. -
Railroads
Rail transport began in 1827, operated at first by horse power or cables. The tracks connected anthracite fields with canals or rivers. The Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad, completed in 1834 as part of the State Works, was the first ever built by a government. Pennsylvania's first railroad built as a common carrier was the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad, completed in 1835. -
The Constitution of 1838
In 1837, a convention was called to revise the state's laws and draft a new constitution. The resulting constitution, in 1838, reduced the governor's appointive power, increased the number of elective offices, and shortened terms of office. The voters were given a greater voice in government and were better protected from abuses of power. However, free African Americans were disenfranchised despite protests from blacks in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. -
Shifting Political Tides and the Antislavery Movement
After the adoption of the new constitution in 1838, six governors followed in succession prior to the Civil War, two of whom were Whigs. State debts incurred for internal improvements, especially the canal system, almost bankrupted the state, until the Public Works were finally sold in 1857. The search for a sound banking and currency policy and the rising political career of James Buchanan dominated this period. -
African Americans
African American leaders included those who made political appeals, like James Forten and Martin R. Delany; underground railroad workers Robert Purvis and William Still; publication activist John B. Vashon and his son George; and the organizer of the Christiana Riot of 1851 against fugitive slave hunters, William Parker. -
Labor
After the Revolution, the use of indentured servants sharply declined. The growth of industrial factories up to 1860, however, enlarged the gulf between skilled and unskilled labor, and immigrants were as much downtrodden by this as they had been under indentured servitude. Local, specialized labor unions had brief successes, especially in Philadelphia where, in 1845, a city ordinance placed a ten-hour limit on the laborer's day. -
Economy
By 1861, the factory system had largely replaced the domestic system of home manufacture, and the foundation of the state's industrial greatness was established. The change was most noticeable after 1840 because of a shift to machinery and factories in the textile industry. By 1860, there were more than two hundred textile mills. Leather making, lumbering, shipbuilding, publishing, and tobacco and paper manufacture also prospered in the 1800s.