WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.179 Imagine trying to hide a massive like 2000 pound 00:00:04.179 --> 00:00:07.179 bronze bell in the back of a bumpy farm wagon. 00:00:07.339 --> 00:00:10.419 Oh, man. Right. And meanwhile, the greatest army 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:13.699 on earth is literally marching into your city. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.320 It's such a crazy image. It really is. It's 1777 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:19.859 and the British are closing in on Philadelphia. 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:22.800 The city's defenders know that if the British 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:24.760 get their hands on those bells, they are going 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:26.920 to melt them down into musket balls. Right. For 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.609 artillery and ammo. Exactly. So two local farmers 00:00:29.609 --> 00:00:32.350 are tasked with hauling 11 bells, including the 00:00:32.350 --> 00:00:34.329 one we now call the Liberty Bell out of the city. 00:00:34.409 --> 00:00:36.329 Just dragging them away. Dragging them north 00:00:36.329 --> 00:00:39.149 to Allentown and literally burying them under 00:00:39.149 --> 00:00:41.710 the floorboards of a church basement. Welcome 00:00:41.710 --> 00:00:44.450 to today's deep dive. It is such a visceral story. 00:00:44.609 --> 00:00:47.549 I mean, we tend to view history in these grand 00:00:47.549 --> 00:00:50.409 sweeping strokes, but it is actually built on 00:00:50.409 --> 00:00:52.829 those exact moments of physical desperation. 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:55.369 Yeah. And what makes that specific story so fitting 00:00:55.369 --> 00:00:58.229 for today is, well, where it happened. Exactly. 00:00:58.979 --> 00:01:01.659 Today, we are exploring the comprehensive history 00:01:01.659 --> 00:01:04.439 of Pennsylvania. And as I was digging through 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:06.379 this material, preparing for you to join us, 00:01:06.819 --> 00:01:09.439 I kept thinking about holograms. Holograms, okay. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:12.180 Yeah, there's this fascinating concept in physics 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:15.500 where if you shatter a holographic plate of an 00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:18.459 apple, you don't just get a fragment of the apple 00:01:18.459 --> 00:01:21.799 on each broken shard. Right. If you shine a laser 00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:23.920 through even the smallest piece, you see the 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:27.959 entire apple. The whole is contained within the 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:30.930 part. And honestly, looking at Pennsylvania is 00:01:30.930 --> 00:01:32.989 exactly like looking at one of those sharks. 00:01:33.170 --> 00:01:35.409 I love that analogy, actually. Because if you 00:01:35.409 --> 00:01:38.189 want to truly understand the vast, contradictory, 00:01:38.569 --> 00:01:40.549 incredibly complex history of the United States, 00:01:40.930 --> 00:01:42.409 you don't actually need to look at the whole 00:01:42.409 --> 00:01:44.370 map. No, you really don't. You just need to look 00:01:44.370 --> 00:01:46.469 closely at this one specific patch of land. I 00:01:46.469 --> 00:01:48.810 mean, it is a true microcosm of the American 00:01:48.810 --> 00:01:51.569 evolution. So our mission today is to shortcut 00:01:51.569 --> 00:01:54.700 this immense timeline for you. We are going from 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:57.719 at least 15 ,000 years ago all the way to the 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:00.700 21st century. It's a big journey. A huge journey. 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:04.040 We want to extract the most surprising aha moments 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:08.460 and explore exactly how the ground beneath this 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:11.860 one state shaped the modern world. Okay, let's 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:14.120 unpack this. Let's do it. Because to understand 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:16.219 the land that William Penn eventually claimed, 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:19.360 we first have to rewind the clock way, way back 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.180 to understand the ancient civilizations that 00:02:22.180 --> 00:02:23.979 were already operating there. And we are talking 00:02:23.979 --> 00:02:26.439 about deep time here. Right. A prime example 00:02:26.439 --> 00:02:29.300 is the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter down in southwestern 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:32.139 Pennsylvania. The archaeological evidence there 00:02:32.139 --> 00:02:34.659 shows signs of human activity dating back over 00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:38.479 10 ,000 years. Wow. And just to put that in perspective 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:40.590 for everyone, that potentially predates predates 00:02:40.590 --> 00:02:42.689 what archaeologists call the Clovis culture. 00:02:43.090 --> 00:02:45.610 Yes, exactly. And for a long time, the Clovis 00:02:45.610 --> 00:02:47.770 culture, which was known for these very distinct 00:02:47.770 --> 00:02:51.509 fluted stone spear points, used to hunt, like 00:02:51.509 --> 00:02:53.729 mammoths and big dames. I've seen pictures of 00:02:53.729 --> 00:02:55.909 those. Yeah. They were widely considered the 00:02:55.909 --> 00:02:58.330 absolute first distinct human culture in the 00:02:58.330 --> 00:03:01.530 Americas. So finding human activity at Meadowcroft 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:04.050 that predates Clovis completely disrupts the 00:03:04.050 --> 00:03:06.009 traditional timeline of human migration into 00:03:06.009 --> 00:03:09.219 North America. That is massive. It is. And these 00:03:09.219 --> 00:03:12.180 populations were incredibly adaptable. By the 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:15.099 year 1000 CE, the native populations in this 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:18.259 region had transitioned from nomadic hunter gatherers 00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:21.379 into societies with highly developed agricultural 00:03:21.379 --> 00:03:24.159 techniques. You know, I have to say. My perspective 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:26.300 really shifted reading the source material for 00:03:26.300 --> 00:03:30.000 this. I think a lot of us grew up with this misconception 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.300 of early Native American history as this static 00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:36.159 map. Oh, completely. Like, this tribe lives in 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:38.560 this zone, and that tribe lives in that zone, 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:41.539 and they are all just... I don't know, passively 00:03:41.539 --> 00:03:43.780 waiting for European explorers to arrive. Which 00:03:43.780 --> 00:03:46.300 couldn't be further from the truth. Right. The 00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:48.719 landscape you see just before European contact 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:51.139 was incredibly dynamic. You had the Lenape in 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:53.419 the east, the Susquehannock holding a massive 00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:55.240 region stretching from New York down to West 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.099 Virginia, plus the Iroquois, the Erie, the Shawnee. 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.000 Yeah. And they were in the middle of a massive 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.400 upheaval. They really were. What the historical 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:05.340 record reveals is a period of intense internal 00:04:05.340 --> 00:04:07.800 conflict and reorganization among these nations, 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:10.680 primarily driven by what are known as the Beaver 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:12.979 Wars. Okay, I want to pause here because this 00:04:12.979 --> 00:04:15.620 blew my mind. How did the Beaver Wars actually 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:19.959 work? Because it reads less like a traditional 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:23.680 territorial dispute and more like a cutthroat 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:26.089 corporate monopoly. That is a brilliant way to 00:04:26.089 --> 00:04:28.189 frame it, actually, because it was absolutely 00:04:28.189 --> 00:04:31.769 about controlling a supply chain. Wow. As Europeans 00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:34.290 began arriving on the coast, they wanted beaver 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:36.810 pelts, which were hugely valuable back in Europe. 00:04:36.870 --> 00:04:39.149 Right, for fashion and hats and stuff. Exactly. 00:04:39.589 --> 00:04:41.769 So the Iroquois Confederacy, which was based 00:04:41.769 --> 00:04:44.589 primarily in upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania, 00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:47.230 wanted to completely dominate that fur trade. 00:04:47.449 --> 00:04:49.209 So they basically wanted to be the sole supplier. 00:04:49.350 --> 00:04:52.930 Yes. They acquired firearms through trade with 00:04:52.930 --> 00:04:55.639 the Dutch, and they used that immense military 00:04:55.639 --> 00:04:58.620 and financial advantage to literally blockade 00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:01.319 other Native nations from accessing the Ohio 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:03.680 River Valley. That's wild. They were aggressively 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.300 cutting out the middlemen. So they're essentially 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:08.699 executing a hostile takeover of the regional 00:05:08.699 --> 00:05:13.100 economy. Exactly, and the human cost was just 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:15.720 staggering. I mean, this economic warfare caused 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:19.439 massive tribal fragmentation. Entire populations, 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:22.459 like the Erie and the Susquehannock, were decimated, 00:05:22.980 --> 00:05:25.360 displaced, or forced to assimilate into the Iroquois 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.319 Confederacy long before European colonization 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:31.050 really reached its peak. And then on top of this 00:05:31.050 --> 00:05:34.329 intense internal warfare, you introduce the biological 00:05:34.329 --> 00:05:37.009 devastation of European arrival. Right. European 00:05:37.009 --> 00:05:39.550 diseases, particularly smallpox, tore through 00:05:39.550 --> 00:05:41.930 these trade networks. The mortality rates were 00:05:41.930 --> 00:05:44.629 catastrophic. Just devastating. Yeah. There is 00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:46.790 a distinct culture in southwestern Pennsylvania 00:05:46.790 --> 00:05:49.740 known as the Monongahela. The evidence suggests 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:52.000 they were nearly wiped out by disease before 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.800 European explorers ever even physically set foot 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.899 in their territory in the 17th century. Oh, wow. 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:00.240 So by the time European empires began seriously 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:02.339 pushing into Pennsylvania, they weren't stepping 00:06:02.339 --> 00:06:04.920 into some pristine, untouched wilderness. They 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:07.040 were stepping into a post -apocalyptic landscape 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:09.540 that had already been profoundly destabilized. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:12.459 Which creates this massive power vacuum. And 00:06:12.459 --> 00:06:15.139 suddenly European empires see a wide open door. 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:18.040 In the early 1600s, the Dutch arrived to set 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:22.319 up fur trading posts. Then, in 1638, the Kingdom 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:24.819 of Sweden establishes the colony of New Sweden. 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:28.000 I had no idea Sweden was a major colonial player 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.300 in North America. It's one of those weird historical 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:32.839 footnotes. Yeah, and apparently it was the Swedish 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:34.540 and Finnish colonists who actually introduced 00:06:34.540 --> 00:06:37.740 the log cabin to America. I know, right? It completely 00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:40.519 rewrites our mental image of the American frontier. 00:06:40.819 --> 00:06:43.180 But the European turf wars were just as ruthless 00:06:43.180 --> 00:06:45.740 as the Beaver Wars. The Dutch eventually conquer 00:06:45.740 --> 00:06:48.279 the Swedes, and then the English, wanting total 00:06:48.279 --> 00:06:51.279 control of the eastern seaboard, sweep in and 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:53.779 take control of the Dutch holdings. And this 00:06:53.779 --> 00:06:57.259 is where William Penn enters the story. In 1681, 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:00.439 King Charles II of England grants Penn this massive 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:02.500 tract of land. But I was reading this and it's 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:05.259 crashing my head. How does one guy just get handed 00:07:05.259 --> 00:07:07.000 a piece of real estate the size of a country? 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:10.240 It sounds absurd today. Did he buy it? He didn't 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:12.600 have to. The king was actually settling a massive 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:16.959 debt. King Charles II owed Penn's father £16 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:20.139 ,000. Which was a lot back then. Oh, to put that 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:23.279 into modern terms. Adjusting for inflation to 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:27.459 roughly 2008 numbers, we are talking about well 00:07:27.459 --> 00:07:30.740 over £2 million. £2 million, wow. Yeah. So for 00:07:30.740 --> 00:07:33.620 the king, carving out a massive chunk of North 00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:36.379 American wilderness and handing it over was far 00:07:36.379 --> 00:07:38.879 easier than liquidating his own royal treasury. 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:41.959 Hence the name Pennsylvania, which means Penn's 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:45.519 Woods in Latin. Though apparently Penn was incredibly 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:47.360 embarrassed by the name because he thought people 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:49.879 would assume he named it after himself in a fit 00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:52.120 of ego. Which is pretty funny. But this wasn't 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:54.420 just a standard royal colony, it was a proprietary 00:07:54.420 --> 00:07:56.500 colony. What did that actually mean for the people 00:07:56.500 --> 00:07:59.060 living there? It meant that William Penn effectively 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:02.600 owned the land personally. Unlike a royal colony 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:04.879 governed directly by the Crown, a proprietary 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:07.600 colony gave the owner massive, almost futile 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:10.100 authority to dictate the laws, distribute the 00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:12.240 land, and set the cultural tone. Here's where 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:14.459 it gets really interesting. William Penn was 00:08:14.459 --> 00:08:17.540 a Quaker. He belonged to a religious minority 00:08:17.540 --> 00:08:19.600 that was severely persecuted back in England. 00:08:20.029 --> 00:08:22.910 So he decides to use his absolute authority to 00:08:22.910 --> 00:08:25.990 create a utopian startup. A utopian startup. 00:08:26.069 --> 00:08:29.410 I like that. He establishes a refuge based on 00:08:29.410 --> 00:08:32.129 strict religious tolerance. He even acts as a 00:08:32.129 --> 00:08:34.809 city planner, designing Philadelphia on a grid 00:08:34.809 --> 00:08:37.149 system, making it the first planned city in the 00:08:37.149 --> 00:08:39.580 colonies. And that policy of radical tolerance 00:08:39.580 --> 00:08:42.759 acted as a massive demographic magnet. It didn't 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:45.860 just attract English Quakers. You suddenly had 00:08:45.860 --> 00:08:49.620 German Mennonites, Scots -Irish Calvinists, French 00:08:49.620 --> 00:08:52.639 Huguenots, and Jewish settlers pouring in. Because 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:54.879 it was safe. Exactly, because it was one of the 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:57.279 only places on earth where they wouldn't be imprisoned 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:00.059 for their beliefs. But, you know, utopias rarely 00:09:00.059 --> 00:09:03.419 survive contact with reality. Sadly true. Penn 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:05.639 had a reputation for honest dealings with the 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:08.230 native Lenape. He famously learned their language 00:09:08.230 --> 00:09:11.129 and negotiated treaties fairly. But after he 00:09:11.129 --> 00:09:13.929 dies, his sons take over the proprietary colony, 00:09:14.389 --> 00:09:16.909 and they completely shatter that peace with something 00:09:16.909 --> 00:09:20.009 called the Walking Purchase of 1737. Yeah, that 00:09:20.009 --> 00:09:22.169 was a dark turning point. How did they pull that 00:09:22.169 --> 00:09:24.809 off? It was a notoriously deceptive land grab. 00:09:25.370 --> 00:09:28.490 Penn's sons essentially produced a forged decades 00:09:28.490 --> 00:09:31.129 -old deed that supposedly granted them as much 00:09:31.129 --> 00:09:33.149 land as a man could walk in a day and a half. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:35.179 Which sounds reasonable if you're just walking. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:37.860 Right. But instead of taking a casual stroll, 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:40.639 the Suns hired three of the fastest professional 00:09:40.639 --> 00:09:43.159 runners in the colony, and they secretly cleared 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:45.080 a path through the woods ahead of time. Oh, that 00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:48.320 is so sneaky. They ended up taking over a million 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:51.419 acres of prime Lenape land in eastern Pennsylvania. 00:09:51.740 --> 00:09:54.539 That is incredibly underhanded, and it completely 00:09:54.539 --> 00:09:56.980 ruins relations with the native tribes, pushing 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:00.450 them westward into the arms of the French. which 00:10:00.450 --> 00:10:02.990 triggers a domino effect, turning the western 00:10:02.990 --> 00:10:06.169 frontier of Pennsylvania into the literal flashpoint 00:10:06.169 --> 00:10:09.330 for the French and Indian War. Exactly. We even 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:12.389 see a young George Washington accidentally igniting 00:10:12.389 --> 00:10:15.250 a global conflict by ambushing a French force 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:18.039 at Jumunville Glan. and then he has to surrender 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:21.039 at Fort Necessity. So did Penn's peaceful Quaker 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:23.860 vision basically doom itself by expanding too 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:26.179 fast and inviting in everyone? It is the core 00:10:26.179 --> 00:10:28.960 paradox of early Pennsylvania. The Quaker policy 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:31.379 of radical tolerance was a demographic triumph, 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:33.860 but it fundamentally altered the colony's DNA. 00:10:34.139 --> 00:10:36.860 By bringing in tens of thousands of diverse, 00:10:37.340 --> 00:10:39.100 independent -minded immigrants, especially the 00:10:39.100 --> 00:10:41.519 Germans and Scots -Irish who populated the rugged 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:44.559 Western frontier, they created a society that 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:47.679 looked completely alien to the rigid aristocratic 00:10:47.679 --> 00:10:49.960 structures of Europe. So they weren't used to 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:53.259 bowing down to lords and kings. Exactly. They 00:10:53.259 --> 00:10:56.659 inadvertently built a robust, highly self -reliant 00:10:56.659 --> 00:10:59.820 middle class. There is a fantastic quote from 00:10:59.820 --> 00:11:02.899 a writer in the 1756 Pennsylvania Journal that 00:11:02.899 --> 00:11:05.440 perfectly captures this shift. Oh, I think I 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:07.019 remember this from the notes. Yeah, the writer 00:11:07.019 --> 00:11:09.799 noted. The people of this province are generally 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:12.559 of the middling sort, and the meanest among them 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:14.860 thinks he has a right to civility from the greatest. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:17.860 The middling sort. That mindset changes everything. 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:20.500 people of the middling sort who believe they 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:23.360 deserve respect from kings and lords. That explains 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:25.860 exactly why Pennsylvania became the geographical 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:28.220 and ideological headquarters for the American 00:11:28.220 --> 00:11:30.759 Revolution. Precisely. You have a massive population 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:33.220 that bristles at upper class or foreign control. 00:11:33.700 --> 00:11:35.659 Furthermore, during the French and Indian War, 00:11:36.100 --> 00:11:38.299 those frontier settlers felt completely abandoned 00:11:38.299 --> 00:11:40.940 by the pacifist Quaker government back in Philadelphia. 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:42.779 Right, because the Quakers didn't want to fight. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:46.480 Right. They initially refused to fund any military 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:50.360 defense for the frontier. That bred a deep permanent 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:53.279 anti -authoritarian streak. Which makes it the 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:55.480 perfect crucible for a revolution against the 00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:59.179 British Empire. It's no coincidence that Philadelphia 00:11:59.179 --> 00:12:01.919 hosted both the first and second Continental 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:04.100 Congresses. Definitely not a coincidence. It's 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:05.840 where they founded the Continental Army. It's 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:07.879 where they adopted the Declaration of Independence. 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:10.799 Well, Philadelphia was the largest city in British 00:12:10.799 --> 00:12:13.759 North America at the time. It was the intellectual 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:17.009 and financial epicenter of the colonies. But 00:12:17.009 --> 00:12:19.490 being the epicenter made it a massive target. 00:12:20.370 --> 00:12:22.230 Which brings us back to that frantic image of 00:12:22.230 --> 00:12:24.929 farmers hiding the Liberty Bell on a wagon. Yes. 00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:27.590 The British actually captured Philadelphia in 00:12:27.590 --> 00:12:31.429 1777, forcing the entire revolutionary government 00:12:31.429 --> 00:12:34.529 to flee. It really highlights the literal physical 00:12:34.529 --> 00:12:38.269 desperation of the revolutionary cause. The freezing, 00:12:38.610 --> 00:12:40.909 starving winter at Valley Forge followed shortly 00:12:40.909 --> 00:12:44.110 after, where Washington's army barely held together. 00:12:44.230 --> 00:12:46.669 Which we all learn about in school. Right. But 00:12:46.669 --> 00:12:48.750 even while the state was occupied and bleeding, 00:12:49.149 --> 00:12:51.909 the ideological engine of Pennsylvania kept churning. 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:56.059 In 1780, while the war was still raging, Pennsylvania 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:58.580 passed the gradual abolition of slavery act. 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:00.759 Making it the first state to pass such an act. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:02.919 Now, Vermont did it earlier, but they weren't 00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:05.620 officially a state yet. And it was gradual, meaning 00:13:05.620 --> 00:13:08.279 that children born to enslaved mothers were legally 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:11.659 free, but they were forced into indentured servitude 00:13:11.659 --> 00:13:14.080 until they were 28 years old. Yeah, it was a 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:16.500 deeply flawed compromise. Very flawed, but still 00:13:16.500 --> 00:13:19.320 a massive legislative shift for the era. Absolutely. 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:21.820 But, you know, we also have to be careful not 00:13:21.820 --> 00:13:24.200 to view Pennsylvania through a lens of perfect 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:26.740 harmonious patriotism. Yeah, I am actually stuck 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:28.679 on something here. Let me push back on this idea 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:31.259 of unity. OK. We think of Pennsylvania as the 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:33.940 cradle of liberty. They bled and froze to create 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:36.279 this brand new country. But right after the revolution, 00:13:36.419 --> 00:13:40.159 from 1791 to 1794, we get the Whiskey Rebellion. 00:13:40.419 --> 00:13:43.639 Oh, yes, the Whiskey Rebellion. Western Pennsylvania 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:46.710 farmers. are literally taking up arms against 00:13:46.710 --> 00:13:49.870 George Washington over a federal tax on distilled 00:13:49.870 --> 00:13:53.370 spirits. It got so violent that Washington had 00:13:53.370 --> 00:13:56.169 to personally lead a 15 ,000 soldier militia 00:13:56.169 --> 00:13:58.629 into Pennsylvania to put it down. He did. Why 00:13:58.629 --> 00:14:00.429 are they rebelling against the exact government 00:14:00.429 --> 00:14:02.590 they just helped create? I mean it makes no sense. 00:14:02.769 --> 00:14:04.450 It makes perfect sense when you look at the internal 00:14:04.450 --> 00:14:08.059 geography. Pennsylvania was deeply, deeply divided 00:14:08.059 --> 00:14:11.100 between the wealthy urban merchant class in the 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:14.460 East and the agrarian frontier farmers in the 00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:16.580 West. Well, right, the East versus West divide. 00:14:16.730 --> 00:14:19.450 Exactly. To those Western farmers, a federal 00:14:19.450 --> 00:14:22.049 excise tax handed down by politicians in Philadelphia 00:14:22.049 --> 00:14:24.309 felt exactly like a tax handed down by a king 00:14:24.309 --> 00:14:27.750 in London. But, and this is crucial, this internal 00:14:27.750 --> 00:14:30.830 friction was actually necessary. The Whiskey 00:14:30.830 --> 00:14:33.450 Rebellion acted as the ultimate stress test for 00:14:33.450 --> 00:14:36.389 the brand new United States Constitution. How 00:14:36.389 --> 00:14:39.149 so? Well, the previous American government under 00:14:39.149 --> 00:14:41.370 the Articles of Confederation was notoriously 00:14:41.370 --> 00:14:44.350 weak. It had no power to enforce its laws or 00:14:44.350 --> 00:14:47.509 levy taxes. When George Washington successfully 00:14:47.509 --> 00:14:50.309 mobilized a federal army to enforce a federal 00:14:50.309 --> 00:14:53.210 law in western Pennsylvania, it proved that the 00:14:53.210 --> 00:14:55.570 new constitutional government actually had teeth. 00:14:55.570 --> 00:14:57.889 Oh, I see. It proved the American experiment 00:14:57.889 --> 00:15:01.110 could sustain itself. OK, so Pennsylvania's internal 00:15:01.110 --> 00:15:04.309 friction literally helps forge the nation's political 00:15:04.309 --> 00:15:06.370 infrastructure. Yeah. But as we move into the 00:15:06.370 --> 00:15:09.350 19th century, the sheer cost of building and 00:15:09.350 --> 00:15:11.809 defending this nation forces Pennsylvania to 00:15:11.809 --> 00:15:14.730 shift gears entirely. It does. It has to build 00:15:14.730 --> 00:15:16.730 the nation's physical infrastructure. But not 00:15:16.730 --> 00:15:19.350 before experiencing the ultimate national division, 00:15:19.490 --> 00:15:22.549 the American Civil War. Pennsylvania was a powerhouse 00:15:22.549 --> 00:15:25.210 for the union. But again, it was internally fractured. 00:15:25.470 --> 00:15:27.909 You had radical Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens 00:15:27.909 --> 00:15:30.450 demanding the total abolition of slavery and 00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:32.269 immediate civil rights for African Americans. 00:15:32.629 --> 00:15:35.929 But you also had a significant population of 00:15:35.929 --> 00:15:38.129 copperheads. Copperheads. I've heard the term, 00:15:38.190 --> 00:15:39.870 but what was their actual political mechanism? 00:15:40.029 --> 00:15:42.710 Yeah. Copperheads were northern Democrats who 00:15:42.710 --> 00:15:45.990 strongly opposed the Civil War. They wanted to 00:15:45.990 --> 00:15:48.490 immediately cancel the war effort and negotiate 00:15:48.490 --> 00:15:51.029 a peace settlement with the Confederacy, even 00:15:51.029 --> 00:15:53.409 if it meant allowing slavery to continue. Wow. 00:15:53.769 --> 00:15:56.370 Yeah. Union loyalists viewed them as venomous 00:15:56.370 --> 00:15:58.350 snakes hiding in the grass, which is where the 00:15:58.350 --> 00:16:01.169 nickname came from. And the state physically 00:16:01.169 --> 00:16:03.690 paid the price for the war. The Confederate army 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:06.250 raided Pennsylvania multiple times. They burned 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:08.860 the city of Chambersburg to the ground. And of 00:16:08.860 --> 00:16:11.600 course, the Battle of Gettysburg became the bloodiest 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:13.539 battle of the war and the major turning point. 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:16.159 Right. But following the war, Pennsylvania's 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:19.059 trajectory just goes vertical. The sheer material 00:16:19.059 --> 00:16:21.399 demand of the Civil War forced Pennsylvania to 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:24.559 rapidly industrialize its massive natural resources. 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:26.919 It became the 19th century equivalent of modern 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:29.740 day Silicon Valley. The scale of the postwar 00:16:29.740 --> 00:16:31.779 industrial boom is almost hard to comprehend 00:16:31.779 --> 00:16:34.840 today. You have Andrew Carnegie building a global 00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:37.960 steel empire in Pittsburgh. Charles Schwab with 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:41.000 Bethlehem Steel, John D. Rockefeller operating 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.120 there. It's basically a who's who of industry. 00:16:43.419 --> 00:16:46.179 Truly. The birth of the global oil industry happened 00:16:46.179 --> 00:16:49.019 in western Pennsylvania in Titusville, which 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:51.799 supplied the vast majority of the world's early 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:55.059 kerosene. They were inventing iron bridges, air 00:16:55.059 --> 00:16:58.179 brakes, railway switching signals. I was fascinated 00:16:58.179 --> 00:17:00.279 by this detail about a man named Frederick Winslow 00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:03.220 Taylor. He basically invented the field of scientific 00:17:03.220 --> 00:17:06.180 management in Pennsylvania. But what did that 00:17:06.180 --> 00:17:08.900 actually look like on a factory floor? It meant 00:17:08.900 --> 00:17:11.579 treating human beings like interchangeable machine 00:17:11.579 --> 00:17:14.259 parts. Taylor would literally stand on the factory 00:17:14.259 --> 00:17:17.660 floor with a stopwatch timing every single microscopic 00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:20.660 movement a worker made. A stopwatch. That is 00:17:20.660 --> 00:17:22.859 intense. Oh, yeah. How many seconds it took to 00:17:22.859 --> 00:17:25.259 lift a shovel? How long it took to pivot? How 00:17:25.259 --> 00:17:28.380 long to dump the coal? He eliminated any movement 00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:31.859 he deemed wasted. It created unprecedented, staggering 00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:34.380 wealth and efficiency for the owners, but it 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:36.539 completely dehumanized the labor force. At what 00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:39.240 cost, right? I see a middle class grow and living 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:42.279 wages eventually emerge, but only after literal 00:17:42.279 --> 00:17:44.720 bloody wars between unions and corporations. 00:17:44.819 --> 00:17:46.900 I saw a mention of coal and iron police. What 00:17:46.900 --> 00:17:49.339 were those? What's fascinating here is how the 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:51.559 state essentially allowed private corporations 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:53.779 to buy their own standing armies. Buy their own 00:17:53.779 --> 00:17:56.599 armies? Basically, yeah. A mining or skill company 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:59.140 could pay a nominal fee to the state of Pennsylvania. 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:02.039 And in return, the state would commission a private 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:05.819 officer with full legal police powers. But that 00:18:05.819 --> 00:18:08.410 officer was paid by and answered exclusively 00:18:08.410 --> 00:18:12.289 to the corporation. That is terrifying. It was. 00:18:12.569 --> 00:18:15.130 They were used specifically to brutally bust 00:18:15.130 --> 00:18:18.150 unions, break strikes, and evict striking workers 00:18:18.150 --> 00:18:20.269 from company -owned homes. That explains why 00:18:20.269 --> 00:18:23.029 this era defined the modern American labor movement. 00:18:23.420 --> 00:18:25.839 The state was the site of the great railroad 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:29.759 strike of 1877, the massive coal strike of 1902, 00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:32.880 and the 1922 United Mine Workers strike that 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:36.200 involved over 300 ,000 miners. Huge numbers of 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:38.319 people. And these industries required so much 00:18:38.319 --> 00:18:41.079 cheap labor that it triggered a massive demographic 00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:44.539 shift. Yes. While earlier immigration was mostly 00:18:44.539 --> 00:18:46.859 from northern and western Europe, the industrial 00:18:46.859 --> 00:18:49.940 era saw millions arriving from southern and eastern 00:18:49.940 --> 00:18:52.759 Europe. And simultaneously, Pennsylvania became 00:18:52.759 --> 00:18:54.859 a major destination during the Great Migration 00:18:54.859 --> 00:18:57.279 with millions of African Americans moving from 00:18:57.279 --> 00:18:59.880 the oppressive Jim Crow South to take factory 00:18:59.880 --> 00:19:02.599 jobs in northern cities. So you have these powerful 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:05.880 corrupt political machine bosses like Cameron 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:09.180 and Quay dominating state politics, working hand 00:19:09.180 --> 00:19:12.259 in glove with big business to crush labor. But 00:19:12.259 --> 00:19:15.000 out of this exact pressure cooker of corruption 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:18.160 and labor strife, we see the progressive movement 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.740 emerge. Exactly. The extreme conditions forced 00:19:20.740 --> 00:19:23.180 social progress. Right. eight -hour workday, 00:19:23.539 --> 00:19:25.680 the expansion of public education, the painful 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.720 but necessary integration of these massive new 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:31.059 ethnic populations. And this staggering industrial 00:19:31.059 --> 00:19:33.299 might is what eventually carried the United States 00:19:33.299 --> 00:19:35.619 through the global conflicts of the 20th century. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:39.359 During World War II, Pennsylvania alone manufactured 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:42.720 an astonishing 6 .6 percent of the total military 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:45.420 armaments for the entire country. Over a million 00:19:45.420 --> 00:19:47.519 Pennsylvanians served in the armed forces during 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:50.559 that war, but, you know, eventually the massive 00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:53.220 industrial engine that won World War began to 00:19:53.220 --> 00:19:56.940 rust. And this forces Pennsylvania into yet another 00:19:56.940 --> 00:20:00.619 painful modern reinvention. The mechanism of 00:20:00.619 --> 00:20:03.599 deindustrialization fundamentally reshaped Pennsylvania. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:06.299 Politically speaking, the devastation of the 00:20:06.299 --> 00:20:08.619 Great Depression finally broke the long held 00:20:08.619 --> 00:20:11.700 Republican lock on the state. Franklin D. Roosevelt 00:20:11.700 --> 00:20:14.259 won the electoral dose and the state instituted 00:20:14.259 --> 00:20:17.000 its own little new deal. Just a massive political 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.740 realignment. Right. But the real economic pain 00:20:19.740 --> 00:20:22.140 hit later in the 20th century. The Rust Belt 00:20:22.140 --> 00:20:25.500 era. Exactly. As global competition increased 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:27.900 and cheaper labor became available overseas, 00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:31.079 those massive fiery steel mills in Pittsburgh 00:20:31.079 --> 00:20:33.200 and Philadelphia simply weren't economically 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:35.519 viable anymore. And when a steel mill closes, 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:38.220 the entire surrounding town dies unless it finds 00:20:38.220 --> 00:20:40.539 a way to pivot. And pivot they did. We see a 00:20:40.539 --> 00:20:42.420 massive transition toward the service sector. 00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:44.960 Pittsburgh leveraged its high concentration of 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:47.000 universities to become a leader in technology 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:50.339 and robotics. Philadelphia leaned into its medical 00:20:50.339 --> 00:20:53.720 and university expertise. The meds and eds. Exactly. 00:20:53.859 --> 00:20:55.940 The state shifted heavily into what economists 00:20:55.940 --> 00:21:00.119 call meds and healthcare and education. And just 00:21:00.119 --> 00:21:02.740 like the industrial boom, this new economy required 00:21:02.740 --> 00:21:04.960 a new workforce, causing the demographics to 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:07.279 shift once again. Puerto Rican communities grew 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:10.380 massively to fill new economic roles. In Allentown, 00:21:10.440 --> 00:21:12.759 for instance, they became 40 percent of the city's 00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:15.640 population by the year 2000. Oh, wow. And Mexican 00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:18.059 migrants began reshaping the agricultural and 00:21:18.059 --> 00:21:20.259 service industries in places like Chester County. 00:21:20.660 --> 00:21:23.279 It is a continuous cycle of reinvention. And 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:25.779 as we move into the 21st century, Pennsylvania 00:21:25.779 --> 00:21:28.059 continued to find itself at the very center of 00:21:28.059 --> 00:21:31.900 national history. On September 11th, 2001, it 00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:34.440 was the site where United Airlines Flight 93 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:36.940 went down in Shanksville. The passengers on that 00:21:36.940 --> 00:21:39.380 flight revolted against the hijackers and forced 00:21:39.380 --> 00:21:42.240 the plane into a field, intentionally sacrificing 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:44.480 themselves to save the nation's capital from 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:47.579 being struck. Just unimaginable heroism. It is 00:21:47.579 --> 00:21:50.240 a profound reminder of how national history continually 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:53.740 intersects with this specific geography. So what 00:21:53.740 --> 00:21:55.900 does this all mean for us today? If you look 00:21:55.900 --> 00:21:58.119 at the political map right now, Pennsylvania 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:00.859 is known as the ultimate highly contested swing 00:22:00.859 --> 00:22:03.359 state. Very much so. You generally have Democrats 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:05.660 winning the urban cities, Republicans winning 00:22:05.660 --> 00:22:08.640 the rural areas, and the suburbs constantly acting 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:12.380 as the tiebreakers. Was this modern divide born 00:22:12.380 --> 00:22:14.720 entirely out of the collapse of the steel mills? 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:17.000 It's more accurate to say that Pennsylvania's 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.299 current political map is the culmination of its 00:22:19.299 --> 00:22:22.180 entire history layered on top of itself. The 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:24.880 rural agricultural roots established by the Germans 00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:27.779 and Scots -Irish in the 1700s are still fiercely 00:22:27.779 --> 00:22:30.599 present. Right. The intense pro -labor union 00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:32.839 history of the industrial era is still there. 00:22:33.299 --> 00:22:36.440 And the modern, highly educated, diverse populations 00:22:36.440 --> 00:22:39.279 of the Meds and Eds Hums are there. Pennsylvania 00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:41.579 is a swing state because its internal divides 00:22:41.579 --> 00:22:44.200 perfectly mirror the economic and cultural transitions 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:46.400 of the entire United States over the last hundred 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:48.920 years. It really is the ultimate cheat code. 00:22:49.230 --> 00:22:51.809 Whether you are prepping for a trivia night or 00:22:51.809 --> 00:22:54.029 you just want to deeply understand how America 00:22:54.029 --> 00:22:56.970 evolved, looking at Pennsylvania gives you the 00:22:56.970 --> 00:22:59.930 entire blueprint, from ancient indigenous trade 00:22:59.930 --> 00:23:02.609 monopolies and Quaker utopias to the crucible 00:23:02.609 --> 00:23:05.490 of the revolution, from a gritty industrial titan 00:23:05.490 --> 00:23:08.450 that literally armed the world to a post -industrial 00:23:08.450 --> 00:23:11.390 swing state trying to navigate the future. It 00:23:11.390 --> 00:23:13.509 leaves us with a fascinating question to consider 00:23:13.509 --> 00:23:17.390 too. Think about the pure blind chance of geography. 00:23:17.549 --> 00:23:19.450 What do you mean? If the Appalachian Mountains 00:23:19.450 --> 00:23:22.269 had not hidden that incredibly specific combination 00:23:22.269 --> 00:23:24.910 of massive coal veins and oil reserves right 00:23:24.910 --> 00:23:27.430 next to a network of easily navigable rivers. 00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:29.730 Oh, I see. Pennsylvania might have remained a 00:23:29.730 --> 00:23:33.269 quiet agricultural Quaker utopia forever. It 00:23:33.269 --> 00:23:36.480 makes you wonder. How much of our modern political 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.240 and cultural destiny is dictated not by human 00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:42.220 philosophy or grand ideals, but simply by the 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:44.980 rocks and rivers sitting beneath our feet? Phenomenal 00:23:44.980 --> 00:23:47.000 thought to leave on. Thank you for joining us 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:49.000 on this deep dive. The next time you look at 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:51.000 a map, or better yet, the next time you step 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:53.259 outside, remember that history isn't just trapped 00:23:53.259 --> 00:23:56.779 in textbooks. Just like a single shard of a hologram, 00:23:57.160 --> 00:23:59.660 the entire story of the modern world is hiding 00:23:59.660 --> 00:24:02.019 right there in the layers of history beneath 00:24:02.019 --> 00:24:04.140 your own feet. Keep exploring.