History Hits

"Levellers" in American Politics
5/6/13
Author: Daniel Rolph

As one of the last surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson was invited to attend and speak at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of American independence in Washington, DC. Though Jefferson failed to attend because of ailing health, he wrote a poignant letter to Washington’s mayor, Roger C. Weightman, on June 24, 1826.

Topics: Colonial period, Politics
Comments: 0
A Little Known Activity of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society
2/28/13
Author: Daniel Rolph

The Pennsylvania Abolition Society was founded in 1775 by a group of mostly Quaker men in Philadelphia. Originally called “the Pennsylvania Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage,” the group’s primary mission at that time was to render aid to free people of color who had been wrongfully enslaved.

Topics: 19th century, Abolition, Slavery
Comments: 1
Abraham Lincoln Before the Emancipation Proclamation
1/30/13
Author: Daniel Rolph

January marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important documents in American history. Popular history often portrays Abraham Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator,” as most recently seen in the Stephen Spielberg film Lincoln. As a film review in the City Journal states, actor Daniel Day-Lewis “gives us Lincoln as we wish to see him.” The notion that Lincoln was an abolitionist who always wished to free African Americans from bondage is “fictory” rather than “history.”

Topics: 19th century, Abolition, African American, Civil War
Comments: 0
The Eastern Dinosaur: The Discovery of Hadrosaurus Foulkii in New Jersey
12/21/12
Author: Daniel Rolph

Early 19th-century newspapers and periodicals are filled with numerous accounts of the discovery of the fossilized bones of extinct mega-fauna, such as those of the mastodons and mammoths that once roamed the prairies and forests of prehistoric America. Dinosaurs in the United States are usually associated with the western states such as Utah, Montana, and Wyoming, where large fossilized deposits have been excavated. It may be surprising that one of the most significant discoveries in paleontology happened on the east coast in New Jersey.

Topics: 19th century, Science and Medicine
Comments: 0
The Fort that Saved America
11/28/12
Author: Daniel Rolph

For six weeks in the fall of 1777, the British fired upon Fort Mifflin along the Delaware River in an attempt to drive out American troops. This was one of the largest bombardments of the war and a pivotal moment in the American Revolution.

Topics: American Revolution
Comments: 0
Murder, Ghosts, and the Little Grey Lady
10/31/12
Author: Daniel Rolph

This Halloween the Historical Society of Pennsylvania brings you the story of a haunted mansion and its supernatural occupants. This tale begins in the early 1800s in a mansion in Montgomery County in the town of Cynwyd.

Comments: 0
Francis Hopkinson and the Constitution
9/26/12
Author: Daniel Rolph

September 17 marked the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Francis Hopkinson, a native of Philadelphia, had previously signed the Declaration of Independence and was very active in the debates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Topics: 18th century, American Revolution, Government and civics, Politics
Comments: 0
African American Confederates: The Often Ignored Topic of the Civil War
8/30/12
Author: Daniel Rolph

During the American Civil War, political ideologies differed on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. There were Northern Copperheads who supported the Confederacy and thousands of Southerners who fought for the Federal forces. African Americans also were often divided in their sympathies or loyalties during the Civil War. Many sources attest that African Americans, both enslaved and free, either by force or by choice, served within scattered Confederate units as armed soldiers.

Topics: 19th century, African American, Civil War
Comments: 0
Remember the Raisin! The Battle of Frenchtown During the War of 1812
6/27/12
Author: Daniel Rolph

June marked the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812. Here in the Delaware Valley area, many are familiar with some of the more-famous War of 1812 events, such as the bombing of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland; the burning of the Capitol at Washington, D.C.; Francis Scott Key and “The Star-Spangled Banner”; and various maritime battles.  Yet few recall the seminal skirmishes or major battles that occurred within the Old Northwest during the conflict.

Topics: 19th century, Native American, War of 1812
Comments: 0
William Penn’s Treaty with Native Americans: An Australian Connection?
5/24/12
Author: Daniel Rolph

Just recently, Penn Treaty Park on Delaware and Columbia Avenue in Kensington was listed officially on the National Register of Historic Places. This is the site where William Penn and the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians purportedly gathered under an elm tree and signed or at least worked out a mutual agreement. The Treaty of Friendship or Treaty of Shackamaxon of 1682 created a large amount of debate and controversy regarding its occurrence, date, and exact location.

Topics: Native American, Pennsylvania
Comments: 0