| This
book moves the story of Pennsylvania's pivotal role in the American
Revolution beyond familiar Philadelphia into the rural areas to the
north and west. It covers not only the city’s surrounding counties
of Bucks and Chester but also the interior areas of the Lehigh, Schuylkill,
Susquehanna, and Juniata River valleys.
What was the ethnic, religious, and political makeup of Pennsylvania
on the eve of revolt? Who supported the Revolution and who opposed
it? What role did Native Americans play? Did the Revolution produce
social, political, and economic change? The nine essays in Beyond
Philadelphia represent the current state of our knowledge on
how most Pennsylvanians experienced the Revolution. The introduction
and afterword set the essays in the context of early Pennsylvania
history and the course of the American Revolution in other states.
From these essays, we can see three patterns of Revolution in Pennsylvania.
The oldest counties near Philadelphia gave little support, had large
numbers of neutral Quakers and active Loyalists, and endured sporadic
partisan warfare. The central region of the state supported the
Revolution almost unanimously. It contributed mightily to the Continental
Army in men and production of the sinews of war. On the frontiers,
brutal guerrilla warfare involving Indians and rival white claimants
for land began before the Revolution and continued after it ended,
resulting in economic devastation. Here, the Revolution was but
an episode in a local struggle for survival.
Beyond Philadelphia will interest all readers who seek
a better understanding of how the American Revolution was experienced
throughout Pennsylvania.
Contributors are Tim H. Blessing, Robert G. Crist, Paul E. Doutrich,
John B. Frantz, Karen Guenther, Owen S. Ireland, Gregory T. Knouff,
William Pencak, Eugene R. Slaski, Frederick J. Stefon, and Rosemary
S. Warden. |
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