America250: Addressing Special Populations
Certain groups of people in the 18th century have not always been celebrated alongside the established main characters like George Washington, William Penn, and Benjamin Franklin. It is the duty of current and future Pennsylvanians to share the narratives and figureheads of marginalized groups, and to elevate their stories to equal representation, especially during times of statewide or nationwide celebrations of identity. Other groups may not necessarily be marginalized, but are rather an under-represented group of special interest in the unique story and identity of Pennsylvania. Within the holdings of the State Library of Pennsylvania, five notable groups have been identified as special populations to be considered: African Americans, Native Americans, Quakers, European immigrants, and Women. Each of these groups is featured below, with their own unique narratives, materials, and questions to consider in light of the Semiquincentennial.
View of London Coffee House of Philadelphia c. 1770s, with Slaves for Sale - Photo credit: Library Company of Philadelphia
Banner Photo: "William Penn and the Indians" by Constantino Brumidi, United States Capitol Rotunda - Photo Credit: Architect of the Capitol
Selected holdings of the State Library of Pennsylvania pertaining to special populations have been digitized as part of the America250 project, and are freely available by clicking the button below.
America250: Addressing Special Populations
Certain groups of people in the 18th century have not always been celebrated alongside the established main characters like George Washington, William Penn, and Benjamin Franklin. It is the duty of current and future Pennsylvanians to share the narratives and figureheads of marginalized groups, and to elevate their stories to equal representation, especially during times of statewide or nationwide celebrations of identity. Other groups may not necessarily be marginalized, but are rather an under-represented group of special interest in the unique story and identity of Pennsylvania. Within the holdings of the State Library of Pennsylvania, five notable groups have been identified as special populations to be considered: African Americans, Native Americans, Quakers, European immigrants, and Women. Each of these groups is featured below, with their own unique narratives, materials, and questions to consider in light of the Semiquincentennial.
View of London Coffee House of Philadelphia c. 1770s, with Slaves for Sale - Photo credit: Library Company of Philadelphia
Banner Photo: "William Penn and the Indians" by Constantino Brumidi, United States Capitol Rotunda - Photo Credit: Architect of the Capitol
Selected holdings of the State Library of Pennsylvania pertaining to special populations have been digitized as part of the America250 project, and are freely available by clicking the button below.
African Americans, Enslaved, and Indentured Peoples
Pennsylvania's history is not universally cheery and positive. Pennsylvania, like most other states, has a history of human bondage and genocide perpetrated by white European aggressors onto unwilling Africans and Pennsylvania's Native peoples. This was true from the very start of European settlement on lands that would become Pennsylvania, with evidence of enslaved peoples being held in New Sweden as early as the 1640s. Treatment, transaction, and advertisement of Africans as human cargo was common in Pennsylvania, as with the rest of the colonies, as seen in the example newspaper clipping from The Pennsylvania Gazette below. To ignore these influential aspects of Pennsylvania's history is a disservice to the narrative that created Pennsylvania as it stands in modern times.
Top: Layout of "Human Cargo" on a Slave Ship, The American Museum Magazine, May 1789
Right: The Destruction of Abolitionist Pennsylvania Hall, 1838 - Photo Credit: Library Company of Philadelphia
While the evils of slavery were undeniably present from the start of the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania also became a hotbed for abolitionism, led by figures such as Franco-American Anthony Benezet (1713-1782) and Quaker John Woolman (1720-1772). In 1780, Pennsylvania passed an Act of Gradual Abolition, committed to stopping the expansion of slavery in the Commonwealth until total eradication by law in 1847. Abolitionist groups found homes in Philadelphia and spread across the state, harkening to Quaker idealogy of brotherly treatment and seeking an end to human bondage. Yet abolitionism was not the norm. While Pennsylvania was relatively progressive among the early United States in terms of race, with an established black community capable of living well, a majority of white Pennsylvanians still held disparaging or even violent sentiments against African Americans, whether they were one of the few remaining Pennsylvanians holding slaves or not. Pennsylvania, like most Northern states, contained a complicated reality of abolition activism and instances of freedom, but a difficult pessimism of the white populace towards equality.
A Case Study: Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley was the first known African-American author of a published work of poetry, at least in the English-speaking world. Sold into slavery from Africa as a youth, she was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who encouraged her abilities in reading, writing, and composition. Taken to London in 1773 for health and a more accepting audience, she was able to publish Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Gaining her freedom that same year, she returned to Boston.
In 1775, Wheatley composed a poem addressed to George Washington, notable enough to gain his audience. Thomas Paine, famous author of Common Sense and editor of The Pennsylvania Magazine, published Wheatley's Ode to Washington in the April 1776 issue, bringing her work to a wider audience. Paine was noted for his abolitionism and inclusion of all persons in political consciousness.
Frontispiece from Wheatley's "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral"
The works of Phillis Wheatley are freely available online by clicking the thumbnail images. As you browse Wheatley's works, consider the following questions:
- Phillis Wheatley, an African enslaved then freed in America, glorifies General George Washington, a prominent slaveholder. Why do you think she revered Washington?
- Given the low perception of Africans in the English-speaking world at the time, discriminatory enough that Wheatley travelled overseas to publish her work, do you think her talents in poetry were respected in the same league as white poets, or treated as an amusing exception to her race?
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Native Americans
Before the Europeans arrived, Pennsylvania was populated by its Native tribes, most of which are lost to history due to disease and devastation. Those that remained during the period of contact, such as the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) and Susquehannock, made treaties with William Penn (1644-1718) that ceded land for European settlement and provided for "peaceful coexistence" ... for a time. As more and more Europeans arrived, greed and racism resulted in illegal encroachment on remaining Native lands and fraudulent land deals such as the Walking Purchase of 1737, perpetrated by Penn's less scrupulous sons, alienated Native populations. During this period, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois or Six Nations) claimed suzerainty over Pennsylvania's tribes and served as power brokers, allowing displaced Native groups such as the Conoy and Nanticoke from the Eastern shore of Maryland and Lenni Lenape (Delaware Indians from New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania) to settle in the Susquehanna and Ohio River Valleys. At the same time Shawnee from Ohio and Iroquois from western New York migrated to the Ohio Valley of western Pennsylvania.Concurrent with this, the Six Nations also ceded large areas of land to the colony of Pennsylvania, angering and further displacing the Native peoples living there.
Susquehannock man from John Smith's 1612 Map of Virginia
At the same time, rivalries between the Britain and France over empire in North America pitted both sides against one another in the quest for land, power, and trade relationships with Native peoples, particularly in the the Ohio River region of Western Pennsylvania centered around modern-day Pittsburgh. This led to the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754 between the French and their Native allies and the British and their Native allies. In the Fall of 1755, Native groups, including Delawares formerly allied with the British, began attacking settlers along the frontiers of Pennsylvania.
The materials from the State Library of Pennsylvania selected to highlight Pennsylvania's Natives focus on Native interaction and negotiations with the European settlers of the Commonwealth.
Conferences and treaties, in the eyes of the Europeans, were necessary to lay legal claim to lands previously shared with the Natives, and to sort out civil matters for uncomfortable situations that arose in the course of interaction. But, as the Europeans were settled and not leaving, the choice given to Pennsylvania's Natives was clear: negotiate new terms or fight. Sadly, the fight was eventually taken to the Natives in the form of slaughter and displacement, leaving no recognized surviving Native tribes in Pennsylvania today.
The following materials are held physically by the State Library of Pennsylvania but were not selected for digitization for this project due to already being freely available online. Nevertheless, these materials complement our selections seen below.
An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest attributed to Charles Thomson (1759) discusses the causes of war between Pennsylvania's Native groups and the British beginning in 1755, along with the work of Quakers and other missionaries to bring peace in 1758. Essay of a Delaware-Indian and English Spelling-book by Moravian missionary David Zeisberger (1776) is evidence of the process of education, acculturation, and conversion of of Native peoples to Christianity. New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America by Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D., 1797 provides and early anthropological view of Native Americans.
A Case Study: The Paxton Boys
After years of simmering tensions between Native populations in Pennsylvania and European settlers, war erupted in late 1755 along the frontier settlements in Pennsylvania. While peace between Pennsylvania's Native populations and whites was restablished in 1758 with the Treaty of Easton, British policies and continued European expansionism resulted in a new conflict, Pontiac's War in 1763-1764. This Anglo-Native conflict resumed attacks on frontier settlements, retaliatory warfare, and acts of genocide.
On December 14, 1763 an armed mob of white frontier vigilantes from Paxtang Township, Lancaster County, known as the "Paxton Boys", murdered 6 peaceful Conestoga Indians in their village in present-day Manor Township. Those killed including their leader Sheehays (born about 1680) who had met William Penn in his youth. As a precaution, 14 additional villagers not present that day were taken into protective custody and kept in the Lancaster County Workhouse and Jail, where they were killed on December 27 by the Paxton Boys, aided and abetted by the indifference of local officials. In February 1764, the Paxton Boys marched on Philadelphia threatening to kill peaceful Moravian Indians from Bethlehem held in protective custody in the city. The works featured here include reactions against and in defense of the actions of the Paxton Boys and the Quaker government.
Additional Resources:
Brubaker, Jack. Massacre of the Conestogas: On the Trail of the Paxton Boys in Lancaster County. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010.
Quakers and the Religious Society of Friends
To escape persecution in England, Quaker William Penn (1644-1718) founded the colony of Pennsylvania ("Penn's woods") in 1682 on the principles of religious freedom, pacifism, and fair treatment of Native peoples. The items featured here demonstrate Quaker principles and influence on Pennsylvania's government during the 18th century until demographic changes resulted in diminished Quaker power and influence in the Colony. Upholding and defending the principle of pacifism proved to be a challenge for the Quakers who faced pressure from frontier populations to provide for defense during times of war between the French and Native peoples and actively participate as combatants during the Revolution against Great Britain.
The following links access freely available digitized items on the Internet.
The Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers
Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of John Comly, Late of Byberry, Pennsylvania
European Immigrants and Settlers
Did you know that the first European settlement in modern-day Pennsylvania was Swedish? European powers have been sending settlers to the lands of modern Pennsylvania since 1638, and for centuries thereafter, European immigrants electing to come to America of their own initiative continued to settle Pennsylvania lands. While the earliest traders and settlers included the French, Dutch, Finns, and Swedes, the story of the colonization of Pennsylvania by Europeans is dominated by the British Islanders and the Germans. By the time of American independence, Pennsylvania was a massive mix of cultures, including thousands from non-British heritage.
In just 150 years, the European settlers essentially eradicated the Native populations and totally changed the cultural landscape of Pennsylvania. As you browse the selections below concerning the lives of Pennsylvania's European immigrants, keep in mind not only the personal costs of (more often than not) less-fortunate European immigrants departing their ancestral homelands to the Commonwealth, but also the loss and suffering this influx of Europeans caused among Pennsylvania's Natives.
Women
Several 19th-century biographical print works on the role of women in the American Revolution held by the State Library are available digitized elsewhere. These include The Women of the American Revolution by Elizabeth Fries Ellet (1848), The Life of Esther De Berdt: Afterwards Esther
Reed of Pennsylvania by William B. Reed (1853), and Some Pennsylvania Women during the War of the Revolution by William Henry Egle (1898). Esther De Berdt Reed's Sentiments of an American Woman (1780) launched the Ladies Association of Philadelphia that was dedicated to supporting the war effort. In addition to the item featured below, works by Phillis Wheatley and Susannah Row, featured earlier, provide additional women's perspective.