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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Preserving Washington’s Headquarters

Posted by on Nov 18, 2024 in | Comments Off on Preserving Washington’s Headquarters On the morning of September 9, 1777, Gen. George Washington and units of his Continental Army arrived in the village of Chads (later Chadds) Ford. Its strategic location on the Great Nottingham Road (today U.S. Route 1) and along the banks of the Brandywine Creek made it a likely place for an attack as the British army crept closer to the rebel capital of Philadelphia. As his anxious troops took...
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Visionary Road to the Capital by David Biser

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Visionary Road to the Capital by David Biser Visionary Road to the Capital The Little Known Story of John Harris Jr. by David Biser Orison Publishers, 108 pages, paperback $19.95 This slender volume is a must for anyone interested in early Harrisburg and Pennsylvania’s frontier history. It is the first and only book-length biography of John Harris II (1726–91, sometimes called John Harris Jr.), the founder of Harrisburg, and has been a...
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Outstanding Perseverance and Courage: Pennsylvania’s Thomas Mosley and the Montford Point Marines in World War II

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Outstanding Perseverance and Courage: Pennsylvania’s Thomas Mosley and the Montford Point Marines in World War II In November 1943, a young Black man sat in a military recruiting office in Philadelphia. At first, joining the Marines seemed like a good idea, but with the paperwork completed, he thought of a relative who had been in the Navy and decided he might like that service better. “Sir, I would like to be exchanged into the Navy instead of the Marines.” It was a simple statement, said in a respectful...
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Defining Boundaries: Pennsylvania vs. Virginia

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Defining Boundaries: Pennsylvania vs. Virginia In 1774 most of Pennsylvania was focused inward, not outward, as the commonwealth disputed claims from Virginia for the southwest corner of the colony and from Connecticut for the Wyoming Valley and part of the northern tier. While Philadelphians were involved in resisting the British taxation laws, most other Pennsylvanians were preoccupied with troubles on the frontier. Colonial competition...
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Hastening the Deliverance of Her Country: Esther DeBerdt Reed and the Ladies Association of Philadelphia

Posted by on Mar 27, 2024 in | Comments Off on Hastening the Deliverance of Her Country: Esther DeBerdt Reed and the Ladies Association of Philadelphia On June 10, 1780, just weeks after the British Army seized control of the city of Charleston, a broadside began circulating throughout the American colonies entitled “The Sentiments of an American Woman.” Authored in Philadelphia by 33-year-old Esther DeBerdt Reed (1746–80), the broadside was a call to action for American women. Drawing her inspiration from legendary female figures of history...
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Prisoners of Congress by Norman E. Donoghue II

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on Prisoners of Congress by Norman E. Donoghue II Prisoners of Congress Philadelphia’s Quakers in Exile, 1777–1778 by Norman E. Donoghue II Pennsylvania State University Press, 288 pages, hardcover $44.95 Norman E. Donoghue II’s exceptionally readable and richly sourced Prisoners of Congress is a long-needed scholarly treatment of the case of the “Virginia Exiles”: 20 Philadelphians, nearly all Quakers, “exiled” to house arrest in Winchester,...
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Shall Liberty Dwell? James Forten and the Struggle for Black Rights in Early Pennsylvania

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on Shall Liberty Dwell? James Forten and the Struggle for Black Rights in Early Pennsylvania James Forten “is not the most well-known of Revolutionary War–era patriots,” Stephan Salisbury observed in The Philadelphia Inquirer of November 14, 2021. The qualification enabled Salisbury to emphasize the importance of Forten’s contribution to the construction of the United States: “But his story is an essential American story.” It is appropriate to proclaim Forten’s life “essential” to the...
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Independence Bells of Philadelphia by Thomas Kaufmann

Posted by on Sep 18, 2023 in | Comments Off on Independence Bells of Philadelphia by Thomas Kaufmann Independence Bells of Philadelphia by Thomas Kaufmann The History Press, 224 pp., paperback $23.99 On July 8, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read to the people assembled in the Pennsylvania State House yard. The bells that rang around Philadelphia expressed the feeling of celebration in such a riotous way that John Adams wrote, “The Bells rung all Day, and almost all night. Even the...
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