Pennsylvania - Bibliography

by Elsie Hamel (January 2004) and Edward J. Gallagher (May 2006)

Cribbs, George Arthur.  The Frontier Policy of Pennsylvania.  Pittsburgh, Pa., 1919.

Cribbs explores William Penn's ideas of justice and humanity regarding Indian policy and the importance of fair treatment of Indian tribes in Pennsylvania and the erosion of this ideal by white traders who refused to be bound by governmental regulations.  The terms of a number of treaties made with the Indian tribes in Pennsylvania are set forth.

Engels, Jeremy.  "'Equipped for Murder': The Paxton Boys and 'The Spirit of Killing all Indians' in Pennsylvania, 1763-1764."   Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8.3 (2005): 355-381.

"In the winter of 1763, dozens of Western Pennsylvanians calling themselves the Paxton Boys murdered 21 Native Americans, a politically charged action that nearly embroiled the colony in civil war and altered the colony's election in 1764.  This essay examines the Paxton Boys' justifications and also the failed rhetorical strategies developed by Quakers for defending Native Americans. . . As the Paxton Boys demonstrated the interrelationship between colonial violence and rhetoric, they set the precedent for future violence targeting Native Americans in Pennsylvania and beyond."

Franklin, Wayne.   "Small Beginnings, Sudden Accomplishments."  Discoverers, Explorers, Settlers: The Diligent Writers of Early America.  Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979.  94-103.

Discusses Penn's Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania, Letter to the Free Society of Traders, and A Further Account of the Province of Pennsylvania as examples of a promoter more "cautious" and "less conceited" than some others.

Frost, J. William.  "'Wear the Sword as Long as Thou canst': William Penn in Myth and History."  Journal of the Friends' Historical Society 58.2 (1998): 91-113.

"Examines the veracity of three stories surrounding English Quaker and American colonist William Penn: the anecdotal story that he carried a sword with which he disarmed a challenger in Paris during the 1660's, the circumstances surrounding his 1682 treaty with local Indians in his colony, and the idea that he viewed his colony in Pennsylvania as a 'holy experiment.'"

Harper, Steven Craig.  "Promised Land: Penn's Holy Experiment, the Walking Purchase, and the Dispossession of Delawares, 1600-1763."  Ph.D. Dissertation.  Lehigh U, 2001. 

"William Penn considered Pennsylvania a tract of land in America that was altogether Indian, a different view than obtained elsewhere in America. Penn's recognition of Native Americans helped forge peaceful relationships that endured until the 1750s. Penn's sons lacked his regard for Delaware rights. Faced with debts and demands for land, Penn's heirs defrauded Delawares of land. The Walking Purchase of 1737 ended the Pennsylvania legacy of dealing honestly for quitclaims and allowing Delawares to continue on the surveyed landscape. . . . The Walking Purchase ended the peaceful society of Penn, who assumed that God promised him Pennsylvania for an exemplary peaceful, tolerant society."

Indian Treaties Printed by Benjamin Franklin: 1736-1762.  Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1938.

This detailed record of Pennsylvania's Indian Treaties begins with the Treaty of Friendship held with the Chiefs of the Six Nations at Philadelphia in September and October, 1738, and concludes with the Minutes of a Conference held at Easton in August 1761 with the chief Sachems and warriors of the Onondagoes, Oneidas, Mohickons, Tuteloes, Cayugas, Nanticokes, Delawares, and Conors.  Equally as informative are the introduction by Carl Van Doren and the historical and biographical notes by Julian P. Boyd.

Jennings, Francis.  The Founders of America.  New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.

Jennings delineates how the Indians discovered the land, pioneered in it, and created great classical civilizations; he traces their plunge into a dark age by invasion and conquest and their method of survival.

Jennings, Francis.  The Invasion of America.  Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1976.

---.  The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire.  New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1984.

---.  Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies, and Tribes in the Seven Years War  in America.  New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988.

This trilogy explores the cultural consequences of contact between Europeans and American Indians and describes the conquest strategies of Virginia and Puritan New England (first volume), then traces the origins and development of the Covenant Chain as an institution of political and economic accommodation under the joint direction of the Iroquois League and the province of New York and the changes impelled by the founding of Pennsylvania (second volume), and explores how the Chain became a casualty of imperial war (third volume).

Merrell, James H.  Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier.  New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.

Merrell traces the plight of the many Indian tribes in Pennsylvania and surrounding areas, beginning with their migration to the Delaware River Valley from the 1630s to the 1670s through 1768 when the Iroquois sold most of their lands.  He provides a close look at the reasons for problems with these tribes.

Merritt, Jane T.  "Kinship, Community, and Practicing Culture: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Pennsylvania, 1700-1763."  Ph.D. Dissertation.  U of Washington, 1995.

---.  At the Crossroads: Indians and Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700-1763.  Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2003.

Merritt focuses on the cultural practices of Native American communities on the Pennsylvania  frontier during the first half of the 18th century when the Pennsylvania government to the east and the Iroquois Confederacy to the north vied for possession of the land and influence over the people who migrated to the region in the 1730s and 1740s.

Moquin, Wayne, ed.  Great Documents in American Indian History.  New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.

Moquin gives a voice to the lesser known native peoples through these written documents, and thereby discerning readers can form their own judgments about the true arch-villains in the contest between white Europeans and American Indians.  He also gives a voice to the many non-Indians who defended native tribes -- for example,. Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Parkman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Collier, and Edward Wynkoop.

Ostwalt, Wendell H.   This Land Was Theirs: A Study of the North American Indian.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1973.

Ostwalt painstakingly offers descriptive accounts of North American Indian tribes in easily understandable terms and traces their ways of life from historic contact to their extinction or to modern times.  Included is a summary of Indian land rights and treaties.

Palumbo, Anne Cannon.  "Averting 'Present Commotions': History as Politics in Penn's Treaty."  American Art 9.3 (1995): 28-55.

"West used many images symbolically rather than literally in depicting the supposed events of 1682; the painting more accurately evokes aspects of Anglo-American relations on the eve of the Revolution."

Parmenter, Jon.  "Rethinking William Penn's Treaty with the Indians."  Proteus 19.1 (2002): 38-44.

"Reinterprets the painting by artist Benjamin West titled William Penn's Treaty with the Indians (1772), commissioned by Thomas Penn, son of William Penn. Instead of the traditional view that the painting is bad history, inaccurate, and nostalgic, the author posits that it indeed accurately represents a peaceful, post-treaty land sale by the Delaware Indians in 1683 to William Penn."

Pencak, William, and Daniel K. Richter.  Friends and Enemies in Penn's Woods: Indians, Colonists, and the Racial Construction of Pennsylvania.  University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2004.

"Two powerfully contradictory images dominate historical memory when we think of Native Americans and colonists in early Pennsylvania. To one side is William Penn's legendary treaty with the Lenape at Shackamaxon in 1682, enshrined in Edward Hicks's allegories of the "Peaceable Kingdom." To the other is the Paxton Boys' cold-blooded slaughter of twenty Conestoga men, women, and children in 1763.  How relations between Pennsylvanians and their Native neighbors deteriorated, in only 80 years, from the idealism of Shackamaxon to the bloodthirstiness of Conestoga is the central theme of Friends and Enemies in Penn's Woods."

Penn, William.  William Penn's Own Account of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians.  Ed. Albert Cook Myers.  Somerset: Middle Atlantic Press, 1970.

Reprint of a portion of a letter from William Penn, first published in 1683.

Richter, Daniel K., and James H. Merrell, eds.  Beyond the Covenant Chain: The Iroquois and Their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600-1800.  New York: Syracuse UP, 1987.

This book examines in detail the extent and significance of the Covenant Chain as it affected the Iroquois and the tribes with whom they interacted, including the Pennsylvania Indians.

Rigal, Laura.  "Framing the Fabric: A Luddite Reading of Penn's Treaty with the Indians."  American Literary History 12.3 (2000): 557-584.

"Posing Pennsylvania Indians as republican, representative 'Americans' embracing industrial mechanization and its arts, Benjamin West's painting William Penn's Treaty with the Indians of Pennsylvania (1771) and Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) create mythopoetic examples of an imperialistic 18th-century Anglo-American consumer culture."

Robbins, Peggy.  "A Walk of Injustice."  Pennsylvania Heritage 14.3 (1988): 32-37.

"William Penn treated the Delaware Indians fairly in the 1682 treaty in which he purchased land along the Delaware River 'as far as a man can [walk] in a day and a half,' but his son Thomas was less scrupulous in arranging a similar treaty more than 50 years later."

Soderlund, Jean R., ed.  William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania 1680-1684.  Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1983.

Soderlund  provides an in-depth study of the documents and correspondence associated with the founding of Pennsylvania, beginning with William Penn's petition to Charles II for a charter in 1680; his efforts to establish the Quaker Colony; his conflicts with Lord Baltimore over land rights; his negotiations with the Indians; friction with the colonists; and his return to England in 1684.  This book contrasts his desire to found a colony where people of different languages and cultures could live together and worship as they pleased with his opulent lifestyle and prolifigate spending habits which resulted in a burden of debts inherited by his sons.

Sugrue, Thomas J.  The Peopling and Depeopling of Early Pennsylvania: Indians and Colonists, 1680-1720."  Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 116.1 (1992): 3-31.

"Reexamines the early history of Pennsylvania and questions assumptions about the lack of conflict between Native Americans and the Quaker settlers."

Tobin, Beth Fowkes.  "Native Land and Foreign Desire: William Penn's Treaty with the Indians."  American Indian Culture and Research Journal 19.3 (1995): 87-119.

"Discusses Benjamin West's painting William Penn's Treaty with the Indians, commissioned by Penn's son, Thomas, and painted in 1771-72 to celebrate both Penns' acquisitions of Indian lands during the 17th and 18th centuries. Placing the painting in a historical context reveals the myth of William Penn's amicable relationship with Indians. . . .  In reality, the Penns' troubles over land acquisitions, caused by land speculation and Indian resistance, persisted until the new American government assumed responsibility for the territory."

Vaughan, Alden T.  "Philadelphia under Siege."  American History 3.6 (1999): 26-32.

"In December 1763 a volunteer army called the Paxton Boys from three frontier towns in western Pennsylvania was formed to massacre peaceful Indians at Conestoga Manor in Lancaster County, forcing Philadelphia to create a militia to keep the peace."

Volwiler, Albert T.  George Croghan and the Westward Movement: 1741-1782.  Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1926.

Volwiler outlines the activities of George Croghan, an Indian trader, Indian agent, land speculator, and a driving force in the establishment of inland colonies in the Eastern United States (including the failed Vandalia Colony) from 1763 to 1773.

Wallace, Anthony F.C.  King of the Delawares: Teedyuscung 1700-1763.  New York: Syracuse UP, 1990.

The author provides a biography of Teedyuscung, the Delaware Indian who demanded settlement of Delaware land grievances, including the Walking Purchase of 1737.  For his efforts to bridge in one lifetime the divide between the white man's world and the Indian's world, he died an alien to both.

Wallace, Paul A.  Indians in Pennsylvania.  Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1991.

After discussing the origin of Pennsylvania's Indians, Wallace offers a complete description of the Delawares, from their physical appearance and dress to their life cycle, religion, and amusements.  A comprehensive view of Pennsylvania's Indian policy and Indian wars is provided, along with a list of famous Indians of Pennsylvania.

Weslager, C. A.  The Delaware Indians: A History.  New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1972.

Williams, Robert A., Jr.  Linking Arms Together: American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600-1800.  New York: Oxford UP, 1997.

Williams investigates the many faces of Indian treaties: 1) treaties as sacred texts; 2) treaties as connections; 3) treaties as stories; 4) treaties as constitutions.  He also promotes the understanding of American Indian treaty visions of law and peace.