1. Political Developments
1.1. Reaction Against the Federalist Party
1.1.1. From 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia was the capital of the United States.
1.1.2. While Washington was president, the state supported the Federalist Party, but grew gradually suspicious of its aristocratic goals.
1.1.3. From the beginning, Senator William Maclay of Pennsylvania was an outspoken critic of the party.
1.1.4. Partly as a result, Jefferson drew more votes than Adams in Pennsylvania in the presidential election of 1796. It was a foreboding sign for the Federalists, who were defeated in the national election of 1800.
1.2. Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy Dominance
1.2.1. In 1799 Mifflin was succeeded by Thomas McKean, a conservative Jeffersonian Democrat-Republican, who governed until 1808.
1.2.2. Attitudes toward President Andrew Jackson and his policies, especially that concerning the Second Bank of the United States, altered political alignments in Pennsylvania during this period.
1.2.3. The Family Party Democrats elected the two succeeding governors, John Andrew Shulze (1823-1828) and George Wolf (1829-1834), who launched the progressive but very costly Public Works system of state-built canals.
1.3. The Constitution of 1838
1.3.1. In 1837, a convention was called to revise the state's laws and draft a new constitution.
1.3.2. The resulting constitution, in 1838, reduced the governor's appointive power, increased the number of elective offices, and shortened terms of office.
1.3.3. The voters were given a greater voice in government and were better protected from abuses of power.
1.3.4. However, free African Americans were disenfranchised despite protests from blacks in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
1.4. Shifting Political Tides and the Antislavery Movement
1.4.1. After the adoption of the new nature in 1838, six governors followed in succession preceding to the Civil War, two of whom were Whigs.
1.4.2. The incorporation of Texas and the war with Mexico which arise in 1846 were generally supported in Pennsylvania.
1.4.3. The Quakers had been the first group to express organized opposition to slavery.
1.4.4. The major political parties both split over the issue. Governor William Bigler, a Democrat, sought re-election on his record of opposing the graft involved in the state-owned canal system, but Bigler aligned himself with the shady Simon Cameron, an opponent of slavery, and broke his ties with veteran politician James Buchanan.
1.5. African Americans
1.5.1. 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.
1.5.2. African Americans made several cultural advances during this period. William Whipper organized reading rooms in Philadelphia.
1.5.3. In 1794, Rev. Absolam Jones founded St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, and Rev. Richard Allen opened the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, both in Philadelphia.
1.6. Women
1.6.1. Courageous individual women worked not only for their own cause but also for other reforms, although the status of the whole female population changed little during this period.
1.6.2. Catherine Smith, for example, manufactured musket barrels for the Revolutionary Army, and the mythical battle heroine Molly Pitcher was probably also a Pennsylvanian.
1.6.3. The state legislature to grant married women the right to own property.
2. Culture
2.1. Education
2.1.1. The 1854 education act also required separate schools for African Americans whenever at least twenty black pupils could be accommodated in a locale.
2.1.2. In 1857 the office of Superintendent of Common Schools was separated from the Department of State.
2.2. Science
2.2.1. The Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1812 and the Franklin Institute in 1824.
2.2.2. The American Association of Geologists, formed in Philadelphia in 1840, later grew into the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
2.3. Literature and the Arts
2.3.1. Charles Brockden Brown of Philadelphia was the first American novelist of distinction and the first to follow a purely literary career.
2.3.2. In architecture, the red brick construction of southeastern Pennsylvania was supplemented by buildings in the Greek Revival style.
2.3.3. Philadelphia was the theatrical center of America until 1830, a leader in music publishing and piano manufacture, and the birthplace of American opera.
2.4. Religion
2.4.1. In the years between independence and the Civil War, religion flourished in the Commonwealth.
2.4.2. In addition to the growth of religious worship, religious attitudes led to the enlargement of the educational system.
2.4.3. In this period, churches threw off European ties and established governing bodies in the United States.
2.4.4. Although anti-Catholic riots occurred at Kensington in 1844, German and Irish immigrants enlarged the number of Catholics in the state.
3. Founding a Nation
3.1. Pennsylvania and the United States Constitution
3.1.1. The Articles of Confederation could no longer bind together the newly independent states.
3.1.2. The Federal Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787.
3.1.3. The structure that evolved remains the basis of our government today.
4. Founding a Commonwealth
4.1. A Pennsylvania Revolution
4.1.1. Pennsylvania is a part in the American Revolution that was difficult by political changes within the state, constitutions a constitutional Pennsylvania revolution of which not all patriots approved
4.1.2. The attitude of the people surpass the conservatism of the Provincial Assembly.
4.2. The Constitution of 1776
4.2.1. The meeting of the outmoded of the old government completely, established a Council of Safety to rule in the act, and drew up the first state constitution, adopted on September 28, 1776.
4.2.2. This brought an Assembly of one house and a Supreme Executive Council instead of a governor.
4.3. The Constitution of 1790
4.3.1. By 1789 the conservatives felt strong enough to rewrite the state constitution, and the Assembly called a convention to meet in November.
4.3.2. In the convention, both the conservative majority and the radical minority showed a tendency to compromise and to settle their differences along moderate lines.
5. Population and Immigration
5.1. Large areas of the northern and western parts of the state were undistributed or undeveloped in 1790, and many other cases were casually populated.
5.2. The state adopted generous land policies, distributed free "Donation Lands" to Revolutionary veterans, and offered other lands at reasonable prices to actual settlers.
5.3. Clashing methods of land circulation and the activities of land companies and extremely optimistic explorers caused much legal confusion.
5.4. By 1860, with the possible exception of the northern tier counties, population was distributed throughout the state.
6. Achieving Final State Borders
6.1. The establishment of a national government during the Revolution helped resolve lingering border controversies.
6.2. In 1776, Virginia's new constitution accepted the 1681 Pennsylvania Charter's land provisions.
6.3. An agreement between Pennsylvania and Virginia was signed in Baltimore at the end of 1779, leading to the extension of the Mason-Dixon Line westward to the full five degrees of longitude from the Delaware River promised in the Charter.
6.4. It was also agreed that Pennsylvania's western border would be a meridian line traced directly north to Lake Erie from the point on the Mason-Dixon Line five degrees west of the Delaware.
7. Economy
7.1. Labor
7.1.1. After the Revolution, the use of indentured servants sharply declined.
7.1.2. 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.
8. Transportation
8.1. Roads
8.1.1. The original Lancaster Pike connecting Philadelphia with Lancaster was completed in 1794.
8.1.2. By 1832, the state led the nation in improved roads, having more than 3,000 miles.
8.1.3. Between 1811 and 1818 the section of this road in Pennsylvania was built through Somerset, Fayette, and Washington counties. It is now part of U.S.
8.2. Waterways
8.2.1. Most of the state's major cities were built along important river routes.
8.2.2. In the 1790s, the state made extensive studies for improving the navigation of all major streams, and canals began to supplement natural waterways.
8.2.3. The system linked the east and the west by 1834, but the expense nearly made the state financially insolvent.
8.3. Railroads
8.3.1. Rail transport began in 1827, operated at first by horse power or cables.
8.3.2. The Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad, completed in 1834 as part of the State Works, was the first ever built by a government.