Philadelphia
- LAST REVIEWED: 30 August 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 August 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0071
- LAST REVIEWED: 30 August 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 August 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0071
Introduction
Philadelphia, founded in 1682, became the largest city in British North America, recognized as a political and economic hub and ultimately served as the first capital of the United States. Quakers founded Philadelphia and retained disproportionate political, economic, and social power long after they had lost demographic dominance. An important strain of scholarship has thus examined the Society of Friends and traced its influence on the politics and pluralism of the region. The ethnic and religious diversity of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania have inspired numerous works examining and attempting to explain how it came to be and how it worked; these range from optimistic accounts that argue for a pragmatic embrace of pluralism to considerably darker interpretations that emphasize fear of Native Americans as bridging previously indifferent or hostile communities. Philadelphia receives significant attention as a critical site contributing to the origins of American financial institutions and fostering dynamic Atlantic commercial engagement. Recent work has likewise focused on the city’s contributions to the evolution of distinctively American forms of political engagement, civic associations, and partisanship, both before and after the American Revolution. Particularly around the bicentennial, a number of works focused on the mobilization of artisans and the “lower sorts.” A related strain of historiography focuses on the lives of ordinary people in the city, with extensive attention to the poor, women, African Americans, and bound labor. These works shift away from mid-20th-century scholarly interest mainly in elites and instead paint a picture of an urban community characterized after 1760 by limited social and economic mobility and resistance to social control from above. Because Philadelphia provides an impressive documentary base, one important strain of scholarship uses the city as a laboratory in which to observe historical phenomena like the public sphere and tavern life, constructions of masculinity, or the lives of single women. While such accounts are sensitive to the context of the city, Philadelphia is not in itself the main variable nor the generator of the specific phenomenon being studied. On the other end of the spectrum, some works position the city as distinctive in its size, diversity, population, and economic importance. Such works attribute to Philadelphia great importance in pioneering political, institutional, economic, constitutional, and social forms of later national and global import. Still, other scholars study Philadelphia in comparison with other places, usually in North America and often but not always other cities. In sharp contrast, however, a recent scholarly strain has pointed to the importance of the rural, western interior, both as an inculcator of political and social change, and as an example of the limitations of Philadelphia’s putative cosmopolitanism.
General Overviews
As the largest city in British North America; provincial capital; hub of economic and commercial activity; home to numerous religious and ethnic groups; cosmopolitan center of libraries, hospitals, and voluntary associations; revolutionary center; and market for numerous printers and their newspapers, it is difficult to provide anything like a “general” overview of Philadelphia. The sheer scope and variety of source material makes any such endeavor difficult. A clear chronological account is provided in Weigley, et al. 1982. Bridenbaugh and Bridenbaugh 1942 is dated but a useful starting point for an outline of the major events after about 1723. Roney 2014 outlines the evolution of Philadelphia’s civil society from the foundation the city, through the creation of municipal government, religious institutions, and diverse voluntary associations to the eve of the American Revolution. Warner 1968 remains a classic articulation of the importance of privatism and physical space in Philadelphia. Finally, Nash 2002 considers history making in Philadelphia—providing an outline of historical events through the way they were preserved and remembered by later city residents.
Bridenbaugh, Carl, and Jessica Bridenbaugh. Rebels and Gentlemen: Philadelphia in the Age of Franklin. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1942.
This narrative history is rich in detail about the history of 18th-century Philadelphia. Its argument that two cultural groups, one aristocratic and one democratic, battled against one another for dominance is a product of Consensus history that has since largely been bypassed. However, this work remains a trove of facts about early Philadelphia and a good starting point for an overview, though the lack of footnotes is often frustrating.
Nash, Gary B. First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
Nash examines the contested efforts to remember and preserve Philadelphia’s past. Three institutions—the Library Company of Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society—played an outsized role in constructing a historical memory of the city that prioritized certain groups at the expense of others. Featuring rich treatment of artifacts and material culture (including more than 130 images), this book has three chapters devoted to Philadelphia between settlement and the early republic.
Roney, Jessica Choppin. Governed by a Spirit of Opposition: The Origins of American Political Practice in Colonial Philadelphia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.
Roney examines Philadelphia governance from 1682 to 1776. She charts the uncertain beginnings of local government, largely effected through churches; the origins, strengths, and weaknesses of the municipal corporation, founded in 1701; the importance of non-state and quasi-state-affiliated actors and organizations to civic, political, and economic life; and finally, the political coup effected in the summer of 1776 to replace provincial government with a new, revolutionary government.
Scharf, J. Thomas, and Thompson Westcott. History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884. 3 vols. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1884.
This is the earliest narrative history of Philadelphia, and though it is dated, it remains a valuable resource for historians of the city. Volume 1 proceeds chronologically from 1609 to the 1880s. Volumes 2 and 3 are organized thematically, with chapters on art, culture, religion, medicine, law, the military, municipal government, education, city landmarks, and so on.
Warner, Sam Bass, Jr. The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of Its Growth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1968.
Warner argues that privatism and a “committee system” of municipal government characterized colonial Philadelphia, which he vividly describes as a small, cramped, face-to-face walking city. The book is in three parts; the first treats Philadelphia in the 1770s.
Weigley, Russell F., Nicholas B. Wainwright, and Edwin Wolf. Philadelphia: A 300-Year History. 2d ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982.
This collection of chronologically based essays narrates Philadelphia’s history from before the permanent arrival of the English up to 1982.
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- Abolition of Slavery
- Abolitionism and Africa
- Africa and the Atlantic World
- African American Religions
- African Religion and Culture
- African Retailers and Small Artisans in the Atlantic World
- Age of Atlantic Revolutions, The
- Alexander von Humboldt and Transatlantic Studies
- America, Pre-Contact
- American Revolution, The
- Anti-Catholicism and Anti-Popery
- Argentina
- Army, British
- Arsenals
- Art and Artists
- Asia and the Americas and the Iberian Empires
- Atlantic Biographies
- Atlantic Creoles
- Atlantic History and Hemispheric History
- Atlantic Migration
- Atlantic New Orleans: 18th and 19th Centuries
- Atlantic Trade and the British Economy
- Atlantic Trade and the European Economy
- Bacon's Rebellion
- Baltic Sea
- Baptists
- Barbados in the Atlantic World
- Barbary States
- Benguela
- Berbice in the Atlantic World
- Black Atlantic in the Age of Revolutions, The
- Bolívar, Simón
- Borderlands
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- Brazil
- Brazil and Africa
- Brazilian Independence
- Britain and Empire, 1685-1730
- British Atlantic Architectures
- British Atlantic World
- Buenos Aires in the Atlantic World
- Cabato, Giovanni (John Cabot)
- Cannibalism
- Capitalism
- Captain John Smith
- Captivity
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- Captivity in North America
- Caribbean, The
- Cartier, Jacques
- Castas
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- Central American Independence
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- Charleston
- Chartered Companies, British and Dutch
- Cherokee
- Childhood
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- Chocolate
- Church and Slavery
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- Citizenship in the Atlantic World
- Class and Social Structure
- Climate
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- Coastal/Coastwide Trade
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- Coffee
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- Colonial Governance in the Atlantic World
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- Communications in the Atlantic World
- Comparative Indigenous History of the Americas
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- Cosmopolitanism
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- Creolization
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- Crowds in the Atlantic World
- Cuba
- Currency
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- Early Modern Amazonia
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- Edwards, Jonathan
- Elites
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- Female Slave Owners
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- Gardens
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- Giovanni da Verrazzano, Explorer
- Glasgow
- Glorious Revolution
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- Great Awakening
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- Honor
- Huguenots
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- Iberian Atlantic World, 1600-1800
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- Idea of Atlantic History, The
- Impact of the French Revolution on the Caribbean, The
- Indentured Servitude
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- India, The Atlantic Ocean and
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- Ireland and the Atlantic World
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- Itinerant Traders, Peddlers, and Hawkers
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- Jefferson, Thomas
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- Louverture, Toussaint
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- Marriage and Family in the Atlantic World
- Maryland
- Material Culture in the Atlantic World
- Material Culture of Slavery in the British Atlantic
- Medicine in the Atlantic World
- Mennonites
- Mental Disorder in the Atlantic World
- Mercantilism
- Merchants in the Atlantic World
- Merchants' Networks
- Mestizos
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- Minas Gerais
- Miners
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- Missionaries
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- Money and Banking in the Atlantic Economy
- Monroe, James
- Moravians
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- Music and Music Making
- Napoléon Bonaparte and the Atlantic World
- Nation and Empire in Northern Atlantic History
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- Native American Histories in North America
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- Native Americans and the Atlantic World
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- Nobility and Gentry in the Early Modern Atlantic World
- North Africa and the Atlantic World
- Northern New Spain
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- Oceans
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- Papacy and the Atlantic World
- Paris
- People of African Descent in Early Modern Europe
- Peru
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- Philadelphia
- Philanthropy
- Phillis Wheatley
- Piracy
- Plantations in the Atlantic World
- Plants
- Poetry in the British Atlantic
- Political Participation in the Nineteenth Century Atlantic...
- Polygamy and Bigamy
- Port Cities, British
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- Portugal, Early Modern
- Portuguese Atlantic World
- Potosi
- Poverty in the Early Modern English Atlantic
- Pre-Columbian Transatlantic Voyages
- Pregnancy and Reproduction
- Print Culture in the British Atlantic
- Proprietary Colonies
- Protestantism
- Puritanism
- Quakers
- Quebec and the Atlantic World, 1760–1867
- Quilombos
- Race and Racism
- Race, The Idea of
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- Red Atlantic
- Refugees, Saint-Domingue
- Religion
- Religion and Colonization
- Religion in the British Civil Wars
- Religious Border-Crossing
- Religious Networks
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- Republicanism
- Rice in the Atlantic World
- Rio de Janeiro
- Rum
- Rumor
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- Saint Domingue
- Saint-Louis, Senegal
- Salvador da Bahia
- Scandinavian Chartered Companies
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- Science, History of
- Scotland and the Atlantic World
- Sea Creatures in the Atlantic World
- Second-Hand Trade
- Settlement and Region in British America, 1607-1763
- Seven Years' War, The
- Seville
- Sex and Sexuality in the Atlantic World
- Shakers
- Shakespeare and the Atlantic World
- Ships and Shipping
- Signares
- Silk
- Slave Codes
- Slave Names and Naming in the Anglophone Atlantic
- Slave Owners In The British Atlantic
- Slave Rebellions
- Slave Resistance in the Atlantic World
- Slave Trade and Natural Science, The
- Slave Trade, The Atlantic
- Slavery and Empire
- Slavery and Fear
- Slavery and Gender
- Slavery and the Family
- Slavery, Atlantic
- Slavery, Health, and Medicine
- Slavery in Africa
- Slavery in Brazil
- Slavery in British America
- Slavery in British and American Literature
- Slavery in Danish America
- Slavery in Dutch America and the West Indies
- Slavery in New England
- Slavery in North America, The Growth and Decline of
- Slavery in the Cape Colony, South Africa
- Slavery in the French Atlantic World
- Slavery, Native American
- Slavery, Public Memory and Heritage of
- Slavery, The Origins of
- Slavery, Urban
- Smuggling
- São Paulo
- Sociability in the British Atlantic
- Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts...
- Soldiers
- South Atlantic
- South Atlantic Creole Archipelagos
- South Carolina
- Sovereignty and the Law
- Spain, Early Modern
- Spanish America After Independence, 1825-1900
- Spanish American Port Cities
- Spanish Atlantic World
- Spanish Colonization to 1650
- Subjecthood in the Atlantic World
- Sugar in the Atlantic World
- Swedish Atlantic World, The
- Technology, Inventing, and Patenting
- Textiles in the Atlantic World
- Texts, Printing, and the Book
- The American West
- The Danish Atlantic World
- The French Lesser Antilles
- The Fur Trade
- The Spanish Caribbean
- Theater
- Time(scapes) in the Atlantic World
- Tobacco
- Toleration in the Atlantic World
- Transatlantic Political Economy
- Travel Writing (in the Atlantic World)
- Tudor and Stuart Britain in the Wider World, 1485-1685
- Universities
- USA and Empire in the 19th Century
- Venezuela and the Atlantic World
- Violence
- Visual Art and Representation
- War and Trade
- War of 1812
- War of the Spanish Succession
- Warfare
- Warfare in Spanish America
- Warfare in 17th-Century North America
- Warfare, Medicine, and Disease in the Atlantic World
- Weavers
- West Indian Economic Decline
- Whitefield, George
- Whiteness in the Atlantic World
- William Blackstone
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1611)
- William Wilberforce
- Wine
- Witchcraft in the Atlantic World
- Women and the Law
- Women Prophets