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Home > Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania
Before the Commonwealth was settled, the region was home to the Delaware, Shawnee, Iroquois, Eries, Susquehannock, and other Native American tribes.
In 1681, Charles II arranged a land charter to William Penn, to reimburse a debt of £20,000 owed to William's father, Admiral Penn. This was one of the biggest land grants to a person in history. It was named Pennsylvania, translating to "Penn's Woods", in respect of Admiral Penn. William Penn, who had sought his province to be named "Sylvania", was uncomfortable at the change, afraid that people would assume he had named it after himself; however King Charles would not change the grant.
Penn founded a administration with two improvements that were much copied in the New World: freedom of religious conviction and the county commission.
Between 1730 and when it was banned by Parliament by means of the Currency Act of 1764, the Pennsylvania Colony printed its own paper money to account for the shortage of real silver and gold. The paper money was named Colonial Scrip. The Colony issued "bills of credit" which were equivalent to silver or gold coins because of their official tender status. Since they were handed out by the government and not a banking establishment, it was an interest-free plan, principally defraying the expenditure of the government and consequently taxation of the people. It also promoted prosperity and general employment since the Government used carefulness and did not print too much to inflate the currency. Benjamin Franklin gave a hand in making this money, of which he said its usefulness was never to be doubted, and it also received the high commend of Adam Smith.
Later, the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, the Declaration of Rights and Grievances Delegate penned John Dickinson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Congress was the primary meeting of the thirteen colonies, initiated at the request of the Massachusetts Assembly, but merely nine colonies sent delegates. Dickinson then sent Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the residents of the British Colonies, which were in print within the Pennsylvania Chronicle throughout December 2, 1767, to February 15, 1768.
By the time the Founding Fathers of the United States were about to convene in Philadelphia in 1774, twelve colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress. The First Continental Congress made and signed the Declaration of Independence within Philadelphia, but when that city was conquered by the British, the Continental Congress ran away westward, convening at the Lancaster courthouse on Saturday, September 27, 1777, then to York. There they wrote the Articles of Confederation that created 13 independent colonies into a new country. Afterwards, the Constitution was written, and Philadelphia was once again chosen to be the cradle of the new American Nation.
Pennsylvania is the second state to support the U.S. Constitution on 12th December, 1787, five days after the first, Delaware.
Dickinson College of Carlisle was the initial college founded within the United States. founded in 1773, the college was authorized five days later than the Treaty of Paris on 9th September, 1783. The school was established by Benjamin Rush.
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