1.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
2.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
3.
Wilmington, Delaware
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Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine River and it is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, as of the 2015 United States Census estimate, the population of the city is 71,948, reflecting an increase of 1. 5% from the 2010 Census. The Wilmington Metropolitan Division, comprising New Castle County, DE, Cecil County, MD and Salem County, Wilmington is built on the site of Fort Christina and the settlement Kristinehamn, the first Swedish settlement in North America. The area now known as Wilmington was settled by the Lenape band led by Sachem Mattahorn just before Henry Hudson sailed up the Len-api Hanna in 1609, the area was called Maax-waas Unk or Bear Place after the Maax-waas Hanna that flowed by. It was called the Bear River because it flowed west to the Bear People, the Dutch heard and spelled the river and the place as Minguannan. The area was known as The Rocks, and is located near the foot of present-day Seventh Street. Fort Christina served as the headquarters for the colony of New Sweden which consisted of, for the most part, the lower Delaware River region, dr. Timothy Stidham was a prominent citizen and doctor in Wilmington. He was born in 1610, probably in Hammel, Denmark and raised in Gothenburg and he arrived in New Sweden in 1654 and is recorded as the first physician in Delaware. The most important Swedish governor was Colonel Johan Printz, who ruled the colony under Swedish law from 1643 to 1653. He was succeeded by Johan Rising, who upon his arrival in 1654, seized the Dutch post Fort Casimir, located at the site of the present town of New Castle and this marked the end of Swedish rule in North America. Although during the American Revolutionary War only one small battle was fought in Delaware, the British remained in the town until they vacated Philadelphia in 1778. In 1800, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, a French Huguenot, knowledgeable in the manufacture of gunpowder, by 1802 DuPont had begun making the explosive in a mill on the Brandywine River north of Brandywine Village and just outside the town of Wilmington. The DuPont company became a supplier to the U. S. military. Located on the banks of the Brandywine River, the village was annexed by Wilmington city. The greatest growth in the city occurred during the Civil War, Delaware, though officially remaining a member of the Union, was a border state and divided in its support of both the Confederate and the Union causes. The war created enormous demand for goods and materials supplied by Wilmington including ships, railroad cars, gunpowder, shoes, and other war-related goods. By 1868, Wilmington was producing more iron ships than the rest of the combined and it rated first in the production of gunpowder and second in carriages
4.
Colonial history of the United States
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The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European settlements from the start of colonization until their incorporation into the United States. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain, small early attempts often disappeared, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. Everywhere, the rate was very high among the first arrivals. Nevertheless, successful colonies were established several decades. European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups, few aristocrats settled permanently, but a number of adventurers, soldiers, farmers, and tradesmen arrived. They built colonies with distinctive social, religious, political, non-British colonies were taken over and most of the inhabitants were assimilated, unlike in Nova Scotia, where the British expelled the French Acadian inhabitants. There were no civil wars among the 13 colonies. The colonies developed legalized systems of slavery, based largely in the Atlantic slave trade from Africa or by way of the Caribbean, Wars were recurrent between the French and the British—the French and Indian Wars especially—and involved French support for Native American attacks on the British frontiers. By 1760, France was defeated and the British seized its colonies, on the eastern seaboard of what became the United States, the four distinct British regions were, New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies, and the Lower South. Some historians add a fifth region of the Frontier which was never separately organized, see timeline of Colonial America for list of historical events. Colonizers came from European kingdoms that had highly developed military, naval, governmental and these efforts were managed respectively by the Casa de Contratación and the Casa da Índia. England, France, and the Netherlands had also started colonies in both the West Indies and North America and they had the ability to build ocean-worthy ships but did not have as strong a history of colonization in foreign lands as did Portugal and Spain. However, English entrepreneurs gave their colonies a foundation of merchant-based investment that seemed to need much less government support, initially, matters concerning the colonies were dealt with primarily by the Privy Council and its committees. The Commission of Trade was set up in 1625 as the first special body convened to advise on colonial questions, mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies from the 1660s. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold, the government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a superb Royal Navy which protected the British colonies, thus, the British Navy captured New Amsterdam in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country, the prospect of religious persecution by authorities of the crown and the Church of England prompted a significant number of colonization efforts. People fleeing persecution by King Charles I were responsible for settling most of New England, anonymous Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to map the future eastern seaboard of the U. S. from New York to Florida, as documented in the Cantino planisphere of 1502
5.
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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The Constitutional Convention took place from May 25 to September 17,1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention, the result of the Convention was the creation of the United States Constitution, placing the Convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States. Most of the time during the Convention was spent on deciding these issues, while the powers of legislature, executive, once the Convention began, the delegates first agreed on the principles of the Convention, then they agreed on Madisons Virginia Plan and began to modify it. A Committee of Detail assembled during the July 4 recess eventually produced a draft of the constitution. Most of the draft remained in place, and can be found in the final version of the constitution. After the final issues were resolved, the Committee on Style produced the final version, before the Constitution was drafted, the nearly 4 million inhabitants of the 13 newly independent states were governed under the Articles of Confederation, created by the Second Continental Congress. It soon became evident to all that the chronically underfunded Confederation government. As the Articles of Confederation could only be amended by unanimous vote of the states, in addition, the Articles gave the weak federal government no taxing power, it was wholly dependent on the states for its money, and had no power to force delinquent states to pay. Once the immediate task of winning the American Revolutionary War had passed, the states began to look to their own interests, another impetus for the convention was Shays Rebellion. A political conflict between Boston merchants and rural farmers over issues such as property seizures for tax debts had broken out into an open rebellion. This rebellion was led by a former Revolutionary War captain, Daniel Shays, himself a farmer with tax debts. The rebellion took months for Massachusetts to put down completely, in September 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14,1787, Rhode Island, fearing that the Convention would work to its disadvantage, boycotted the Convention and, when the Constitution was put to the states, initially refused to ratify it. James Madison arrived first, and soon most of the Virginia delegation arrived, while waiting for the other delegates, the Virginia delegation produced the Virginia Plan, which was designed and written by James Madison. On May 25, the delegations convened in the Pennsylvania State House, George Washington was unanimously elected president of the Convention, and it was agreed that the discussions and votes would be kept secret until the conclusion of the meeting. Although William Jackson was elected as secretary, his records were brief, Madisons Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, supplemented by the notes of Robert Yates, remain the most complete record of the Convention. Throughout the debate, delegates constantly referred to precedents from history in support of their position, most commonly, they referred to the history of England, in particular the Glorious Revolution, classical history, and recent precedents from Holland and Germany. Outside the Convention in Philadelphia, there was a convening of the Society of the Cincinnati
6.
Benjamin Rush
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Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush was a leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, educator and humanitarian. Rush attended the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence and his later self-description there was, He aimed right. He served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, Rush was a leader of the American Enlightenment, and an enthusiastic supporter of the American Revolution. He was a leader in Pennsylvanias ratification of the Constitution in 1788 and he was prominent in many reforms, especially in the areas of medicine and education. He opposed slavery, advocated free public schools, and sought improved education for women, as a leading physician, Rush had a major impact on the emerging medical profession. As an Enlightenment intellectual, he was committed to organizing all medical knowledge around explanatory theories, Rush argued that illness was the result of imbalances in the bodys physical system and was caused by malfunctions in the brain. His approach prepared the way for medical research, but Rush himself undertook none of it. He promoted public health by advocating clean environment and stressing the importance of personal and his study of mental disorder made him one of the founders of American psychiatry. Benjamin Rush was born to John Rush and Susanna Hall on January 4,1746, the family which included seven children lived on a plantation in the Township of Byberry in Philadelphia County, then about 14 mi outside Philadelphia. Benjamin was the fourth of the seven children, John Rush died in July 1751 at the age of thirty-nine. He went peacefully, saying over and over, Lord, and his wife saw him buried as he wished in the cemetery behind Christ Church. Leaving his mother, who ran a store, to care for the large family. At eight years of age, Benjamin was sent to live with an aunt and uncle, Benjamin and his older brother Jacob attended a school in Cecil County, Maryland, run by the Rev. Samuel Finley, which would later become West Nottingham Academy. In 1760, after studies at the College of New Jersey. From 1761 to 1766, Rush apprenticed under Dr. John Redman in Philadelphia, Redman encouraged him to further his studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where Rush studied from 1766 to 1768 and earned a M. D. degree. Rush became fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish as a result of his studies, while at Edinburgh, he became a friend of the Earl of Leven and his family, including William Leslie. Returning to the Colonies in 1769, Rush opened a practice in Philadelphia
7.
Dickinson College
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Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States. They donated much of their personal libraries to the new college. With over 250 full-time faculty members and an enrollment of nearly 2,400 students, Dickinson has been recognized for its innovative curriculum and its approach to global education has received national recognition from the American Council on Education and NAFSA, Association of International Educators. The college was among six institutions profiled in depth in 2003 by NAFSA for Outstanding Campus Internationalization, in 2010, Dickinson received The Climate Leadership Award from the organization Second Nature for innovative and advanced leadership in education for sustainability…. Typically, Dickinson receives approximately 6,000 applications for its 615 spaces, upon successful completion of both portions of the program, students receive the B. S. degree from Dickinson in their chosen field and the B. S. in engineering from the engineering school. The Dickinson School of Law is located adjacent to the campus and was founded as its law department. It received an independent charter in 1890 and ended all affiliation with the college in 1917, in 2000 the Law School merged with the Pennsylvania State University. The Carlisle Grammar School was founded in 1773 as a frontier Latin school for males in western Pennsylvania. Within years Carlisles elite, especially James Wilson and John Montgomery, were pushing for development of the school as a college, as their conversation about founding a frontier college in Carlisle took place on his porch, Binghams Porch was long a rallying cry at Dickinson. Rush intended to name the college after the President of Pennsylvania John Dickinson and his wife Mary Norris Dickinson, proposing John, the Dickinsons had given the new college an extensive library which they jointly owned, one of the largest libraries in the colonies. The name Dickinson College was chosen instead, when founded, its location west of the Susquehanna River made it the westernmost college in the United States. For the first meeting of the trustees, held in April 1784, the trustees selected Dr. Charles Nisbet D. D. A Scottish minister and scholar, to serve as the Colleges first president and he arrived and began to serve on July 4,1785, serving until his unexpected death in 1804. A combination of financial troubles and faculty led to a college closing from 1816 to 1821. In 1832, when the trustees were unable to resolve a faculty curriculum dispute, the law school dates to 1833. It became a separate school 1890, although the law school, the law school is now affiliated with the Pennsylvania State University. Among the 18th-century graduates of Dickinson were Robert Cooper Grier and Roger Brooke Taney, who later became U. S. Supreme Court justices, during the 19th century, two noted Dickinson College alumni had prominent roles in the years leading up to the Civil War. They were James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, Taney led the Supreme Court in its ruling on the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which held that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories, overturning the Missouri Compromise
8.
Quakers
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Quakers are members of a historically Christian group of religious movements generally known as the Religious Society of Friends. They include those with evangelical, holiness, liberal, and traditional Quaker understandings of Christianity, to differing extents, the different movements that make up the Religious Society of Friends/Friends Church avoid creeds and hierarchical structures. In 2007, there were about 359,000 adult Quakers, in 2012, there were 377,055 adult Quakers. Some meetings of both types have Recorded Ministers in their meetings—Friends recognised for their gift of vocal ministry, the first Quakers lived in mid-17th century England. The movement arose from the Legatine-Arians and other dissenting Protestant groups, some of these early Quaker ministers were women. They emphasized a personal and direct experience of Christ, acquired through both direct religious experience and the reading and studying of the Bible. Quakers focused their private life on developing behaviour and speech reflecting emotional purity, in the past, Quakers were known for their use of thee as an ordinary pronoun, refusal to participate in war, plain dress, refusal to swear oaths, opposition to slavery, and teetotalism. & J. Clark and the big three British confectionery makers Cadbury, Rowntree and Frys, and philanthropic efforts, including abolition of slavery, prison reform, during and after the English Civil War many dissenting Christian groups emerged, including the Seekers and others. A young man named George Fox was dissatisfied with the teachings of the Church of England and he had a vision on Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England, in which he believed that the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered. Following this he travelled around England, the Netherlands, and Barbados preaching and teaching with the aim of converting new adherents to his faith, the central theme of his Gospel message was that Christ has come to teach his people himself. His followers considered themselves to be the restoration of the true Christian church, in 1650, Fox was brought before the magistrates Gervase Bennet and Nathaniel Barton, on a charge of religious blasphemy. According to George Foxs autobiography, Bennet was the first that called us Quakers and it is thought that George Fox was referring to Isaiah 66,2 or Ezra 9,4. Thus, the name Quaker began as a way of ridiculing George Foxs admonition, Quakerism gained a considerable following in England and Wales, and the numbers increased to a peak of 60,000 in England and Wales by 1680. This was relaxed after the Declaration of Indulgence and stopped under the Act of Toleration 1689, with the restructuring of the family and household came new roles for women, Fox and Fell viewed the Quaker mother as essential to developing holy conversation in her children and husband. Quaker women were responsible for the spirituality of the larger community, coming together in meetings that regulated marriage. The persecution of Quakers in North America began in 1656 when English Quaker missionaries Mary Fisher and they were considered heretics because of their insistence on individual obedience to the Inner Light. They were imprisoned and banished by the Massachusetts Bay Colony and their books were burned, and most of their property was confiscated. They were imprisoned in terrible conditions, then deported, in 1660, English Quaker Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony
9.
Patrick Henry
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Patrick Henry was an American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia. A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779, Henry led the opposition to the Stamp Act 1765 and is remembered for his Give me liberty, or give me death. After the Revolution, Henry was a leader of the anti-federalists in Virginia and he opposed the United States Constitution, fearing that it endangered the rights of the States as well as the freedoms of individuals, he helped gain adoption of the Bill of Rights. However, by 1798 he supported President John Adams and the Federalists and he denounced passage of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions as he feared the social unrest and widespread executions that had followed the increasing radicalism of the French Revolution. After he married, Henry began acquiring extensive land holdings, by 1779, along with his cousin and her husband, Henry owned a 10, 000-acre plantation known as Leatherwood. He is also recorded having purchased up to 78 slaves, in 1794, he and his wife retired to Red Hill Plantation, comprising 520 acres in Charlotte County, which was also a functioning tobacco plantation. Henry was born at Studley, the farm, in Hanover County in the Colony of Virginia. His father was John Henry, an immigrant from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, settling in Hanover County, in about 1732 John Henry married Sarah Winston Syme, a wealthy widow from a prominent Hanover County family of English ancestry. Patrick Henry was once thought to have been of humble origins, Henry attended local schools for a few years, and then was tutored by his father. He tried to start in business but was not successful, in 1754 Henry married Sarah Shelton, reportedly in the parlor of her family house, Rural Plains. As a wedding gift, her father gave the couple six slaves, with his marriage, he became a slaveholder and landowner. Henry worked with his slaves on the land because it was a property, it was exhausted from tobacco cultivation. After the main house burned, the moved for a short time with their two children into the 20 by 60 foot Honeymoon Cottage, a one-story building with attic. They later moved to the Hanover Tavern, owned by Sarahs father and they sold Pine Slash Plantation in 1764, after Henry started working as a lawyer. The Henrys had six children together, one of whom married a brother of poet Thomas Campbell, in 1771 the family moved to Scotchtown Plantation, also in Hanover County. Sarah became mentally ill and died there in 1775, on October 25,1777, 41-year-old Henry married his second wife, 22-year-old Dorothea Dandridge. The next year moved to Williamsburg after his election as governor. In 1779 they moved to the 10, 000-acre Leatherwood Plantation, Henry began a career as a planter, but the soil was poor and their main house was destroyed by fire in 1757
10.
Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman. As a scientist, he was a figure in the American Enlightenment. As an inventor, he is known for the rod, bifocals. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphias fire department and the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin earned the title of The First American for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation, in the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat. To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin the most accomplished American of his age, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richards Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, after 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He pioneered and was first president of The Academy and College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 and he organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France, during the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, from 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the 1750s, he argued against slavery from an economic perspective, Franklins father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. Josiah was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23,1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. His mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 15,1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, Mary Morrill, Josiah Franklin had seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to Boston in 1683, after her death, Josiah was married to Abiah Folger on July 9,1689 in the Old South Meeting House by Samuel Willard. Benjamin, their child, was Josiah Franklins fifteenth child and tenth
