Forgotten Founder: Thomas Paine and American Independence

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Forgotten Founder: Thomas Paine and American Independence Philadelphia was the largest, wealthiest and most cosmopolitan city in all the colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. As the major commercial hub for British North America, the city’s economy was based on trade and commerce and bolstered by shipbuilding, textiles and other industries. Philadelphia was also a hub for political activism, with town meetings and pamphlets disseminating...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States, we continue our series of articles on Pennsylvania in the American Revolution. Three features in this edition focus on individuals of the era and their contributions to the new nation. British emigrant Thomas Paine arrived in Philadelphia in November 1774 and soon began working as the editor of Pennsylvania Magazine. In January 1776, he...
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Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry Raising Philadelphia The Making of America’s First Great City, 1750–1775 by Justin McHenry Brookline Books, 224 pages, hardcover $32.95 McHenry’s appetite for research and his passion for storytelling combine here to illuminate threads of history and biography into readable stories for a broad audience. Focusing on Philadelphia’s transformation into a cultural and political epicenter...
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Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood   The American Revolution was the most significant event in our country’s history. Independence from Great Britain not only resulted in the birth of a new nation but also one dedicated to a uniquely democratic form of government unknown to the world in the 18th century. It also forged a national identity, rooted in the principles of liberty, equality and republicanism, that has endured for...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter This edition of Pennsylvania Heritage brings us to the 250th anniversary of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in the spring of 1775. Two of the features included here commemorate historic milestones in the pursuit of liberty and a third serves as an introduction to Pennsylvania’s involvement in the Revolution. Following the conflicts at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts,...
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The Arrival of Thomas Paine and the Publication of Common Sense

Posted by on Nov 18, 2024 in | Comments Off on The Arrival of Thomas Paine and the Publication of Common Sense Two hundred fifty years ago, on November 30, 1774, Thomas Paine (1737–1809) arrived in America from England. By early 1776 his inflammatory pamphlet, Common Sense — urging the American Colonies to declare independence from imperial Britain — had been published and widely read, accelerating the momentum of the American Revolution. Born in Norfolk, England, Paine displayed a talent for debating in...
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Free-Thinking, 19th-Century Style

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on Free-Thinking, 19th-Century Style Francis Ellingwood Abbot (1836–1903) was nothing if not determined. In 1872, as editor of The Index, the nation’s leading free-thought magazine, he began to muster the full force of his small army of subscribers against what was being called “the God-in-the-Constitution amendment.” A philosopher and theologian, he sought to reconstruct theology in accordance with scientific methodology. From the...
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The Search for Jacob Shallus

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Search for Jacob Shallus Long before the bicentennial of the United States Constitution rendered them ubiquitous, the pen strokes We the People probably formed the most famous and sacred piece of handwriting in the Western world. The original lettering, seen by swarms of visitors to the document’s repository in the nation’s capital, is the very script of the Constitution signed by members of the...
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Chronology of Events Relating to Pennsylvania During the Year 1776

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Chronology of Events Relating to Pennsylvania During the Year 1776 January 1776   1 Defeat of the American assault on Quebec involves heavy losses of troops from Pennsylvania. 2 The Second Continental Congress, sitting in Philadelphia, pro­tests against brutality employed by the British Army in the war against the colonies. The Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, operating in Phila­delphia, begins to vote recommendations for officers to command the 4...
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“Prepare Thyself … to Meet the Lord Thy God!”: Religion in Pennsylvania During the Revolution

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on “Prepare Thyself … to Meet the Lord Thy God!”: Religion in Pennsylvania During the Revolution Religion in the colony of Pennsylvania was distinctive. In contrast to most areas of the western world, this province practiced freedom of religion. It never had an established church. Friends who controlled the first legislative assembly, meeting in Upland, now Chester, in 1682, specified that no one was “at any time [to] be com­pelled to frequent or Maintain anie religious worship, place...
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