U.S. History I: United States History 1607-1865 ... - Textbook Equity

areas that Pennsylvania took over. Shortly after arriving, Penn made a formal treaty with
the Delaware Indians and promised friendship with them. The treaty remained in effect for
decades, and the Indians always considered the Quakers their friends.
In 1683 the colonial legislature of Pennsylvania had begun to function, and it passed laws
granting citizenship in the colony to all free Christians. Penn temporarily lost his charter and
his friendship with the Duke of York, who became King James II, because of issues relating
to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James was deposed in favor of William of Orange
and his wife Mary. Business affairs also kept Penn in England for an additional time, but
when he returned to Pennsylvania he found that the economy had grown and changed considerably
in his absence. To revise the government he turned the three counties that constituted
Delaware over to the people of that colony to govern themselves.
Noted for its openness to various religions, the Quaker colony soon attracted large numbers
of Germans fleeing from religious wars, as well as a stream of Scotch-Irish from the Northern
Ireland province of Ulster. The Germans in particular were hardworking, humble, and
pious people, many of whose descendants still inhabit Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and
surrounding areas. In their religious devotion, the German sects tended to be very much
like the Quakers themselves. Their descendants, the Amish, still live peacefully in Lancaster
County.
In 1723 an event occurred in Pennsylvania that did not seem
significant at the time, but over the course of the life of the
colony, it would grow in importance. In that year a young
apprentice printer by the name of Benjamin Franklin arrived in
Philadelphia from Boston. Franklin set himself up as a printer, a
trade he had learned under the tutelage of his brother, James,
who had started an early colonial newspaper. Franklin’s business
acumen soon made him wealthy, and he began to delve
into a variety of pursuits, from politics and civic action to
scientific experiments, which led him to inventions such as
bifocals, the lightning rod and the Franklin stove. He also
established the first lending library in America and served for a
time as colonial postmaster general. He held several important
diplomatic posts before and during the American Revolution. A
leading figure of the Enlightenment, Franklin would help to
shape not only the colony of Pennsylvania but the destiny of the future United States. During
the colonial era he was the most famous of all Americans. His last service to his country
came during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He died in 1790.
The Southern Colonies
The Carolinas
Many parts of the New World were explored before actual settlements were created, and the
southern North American colonies were no exception. Giovanni da Verrazano visited the
Carolina coast in the early 1500s, and Spanish explorers from Florida also traveled northward
as far as North Carolina.
The first attempt to colonize North Carolina occurred in the 1580s under Sir Walter Raleigh.
The first of these attempts failed, but the second colony was established in 1587 under the
leadership of John White. This settlement on Roanoke Island eventually became known as
the “lost colony.” Because of Great Britain’s preoccupation with the invasion of the Spanish
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