American Revolution Era

Situated midway between New England and the southern colonies, Philadelphia became the capital of the American Revolution as representatives gathered for the First and Second Continental Congresses. When the delegates to Congress declared independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, they also secured Philadelphia’s enduring place in American history. In military action as well as politics, the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware stood at the crossroads of revolution.

Following the War for Independence, population growth outside the city of Philadelphia led to the designation of new counties in Pennsylvania, including Montgomery (created in 1784, from a portion of Philadelphia County) and Delaware (created in 1789, from a portion of Chester).

Locations

Essays

Artifacts

George Washington’s Epaulet

Beeman, Richard. Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776. New York: Basic Books, 2013.

—–. Plain Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution. New York: Random House, 2009.

Bodle, Wayne. The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers in War. University Park, Pa.: Penn State University Press, 2002.

Doerflinger, Thomas M. A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.

Dorwart, Jeffery M. Fort Mifflin of Philadelphia: An Illustrated History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

Finger, Simon. The Contagious City: The Politics of Public Health in Early Philadelphia. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2012.

Frantz, John B. and William Pencak, eds. Beyond Philadelphia: The American Revolution in the Pennsylvania Hinterland. University Park, Pa.: Penn State University Press, 1998.

Gibbs, Jenna M. Performing the Temple of Liberty: Slavery, Theater, and Popular Culture in London and Philadelphia, 1760-1850. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.

Hutchins, Catherine E. Shaping a National Culture: The Philadelphia Experience, 1750-1800. Winterthur: Henry F. DuPont Winterthur Library and Museum, 1994.

Mitnick, Barbara J. New Jersey in the American Revolution. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rivergate Books, Rutgers University Press, 2007.

McGuire, Thomas J. The Philadelphia Campaign, Vol. 1: Brandywine and the Fall of Philadelphia. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2006.

—–. The Philadelphia Campaign, Vol. 2: Germantown and the Roads to Valley Forge. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2007.

Mires, Charlene. Independence Hall in American Memory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

Nash, Gary B. Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, 1720-1840. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988.

—–. The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Olton, Charles S. Artisans for Independence: Philadelphia Mechanics and the American Revolution. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1975.

Rosswurm, Steven. Arms, Country, and Class: The Philadelphia Militia and the Lower Sort during the American Revolution. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1989.

Ryerson, Richard A. The Revolution is Now Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 1765-1776. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978.

Smith, Billy G. Life in Early Philadelphia: Documents from the Revolutionary and Early National Periods. University Park, Pa.: Penn State University Press, 1995.

—–. The “Lower Sort”: Philadelphia’s Laboring People, 1750-1800. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Taaffe, Stephen R. The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-78. Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas, 2003.

Thompson, Peter. Rum Punch & Revolution: Taverngoing & Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

Essay

Related Topics

Locations

Essays

Artifacts

Related Reading

Related Collections