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MODULE 2.3b The Regions of British Colonies 97

Expansion and Conflict in Pennsylvania
These sample pages are distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
After William Penn died in 1718, his sons and closest advisers struggled to gain control
over the colony. A surge of new laborers came to the British North American colonies in
the 1720s, and many settled in the middle colonies. The population of the middle colo-
nies swelled from 50,000 in 1700 to 250,000 in 1750.
Copyright (c) 2024 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
The increase in population was due in part to wheat prices. Hoping to take advan-
tage of this boom, Anglo-Americans, Germans, Scots-Irish, and other non-English
groups settled western Pennsylvania and New York’s Mohawk River valley, hoping to
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
labor on or purchase grain farms in the middle colonies. Shipping agents offered many
people seeking passage to America loans for their passage that were repaid when the
immigrants found a colonial employer who would redeem (that is, repay) the agents. In
turn, these redemptioners, who often traveled with families, labored for that employer redemptioner
for a set number of years, much like indentured servants. The redemption system was An immigrant who borrowed
popular in the middle colonies, especially among German immigrants who hoped to money from shipping
establish farms on the Pennsylvania frontier. While many succeeded, their circum- agents to cover the costs
stances could be extremely difficult. of transport to America,
loans that were repaid, or
In prosperous parts of the middle colonies, many landless laborers abandoned rural “redeemed,” by colonial
life and searched for urban opportunities during the first half of the eighteenth cen- employers. A redemptioner
tury. They moved to Philadelphia or other towns and cities in the region, seeking jobs as worked for the “redeemer”
dockworkers, street vendors, or servants, or as apprentices in one of the skilled trades. for a set number of years.
But the surplus of redemptioners, and other immigrant laborers too poor to purchase
land, meant there were far fewer jobs than job seekers.
Aside from German emigrants, in the 1720s and 1730s Scots-Irish settlers also
flooded into Pennsylvania, fleeing bad harvests and high rents back home in the Irish
province of Ulster. During this time, conflicts erupted regularly between the earlier
British Quaker colonists and newer immigrant settlers, as well as between the various
recent immigrant groups. Scots-Irish and German colonists took each other to court,
sued land surveyors, and even burned down cabins built by their immigrant foes.
Some English Quakers viewed the actions of these newcomers as threats to their
society. In 1728, James Logan, William Penn’s longtime secretary, complained that the
“[Germans] crowd in upon us and the Irish yet faster.” For Logan, these difficulties were
worsened by what he considered the “idle,” “worthless,” and “indigent” habits of Scots-
Irish and other recent arrivals.
The new immigrants also overwhelmed Native American communities that had
lived relatively peacefully with earlier settlers in Pennsylvania. American Indians
were increasingly pushed to the margins as growing numbers of European settlers
encroached on frontier territories.
Anglo-Americans had hardly set high standards when negotiating with American
Indians. Even in Pennsylvania, where William Penn had previously established a repu-
tation for (relatively) fair dealing, the desire for American Indian land led to dishonesty
and trickery.
Conflicts among American Indian nations also aided colonial leaders in taking
territory from them. Hoping to assert their authority over the independent-minded
Delaware Indians, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) chiefs insisted that they held rights
to much of the Pennsylvania territory and therefore must be the ones to negotiate Walking Purchase
with colonial officials. Those colonial authorities, however, produced a questionable A 1737 treaty that allowed
treaty supposedly drafted by Penn in 1686 that allowed them to claim large portions Pennsylvania to expand its
of the contested territory. James Logan “discovered” a copy of this treaty, which boundaries at the expense
allowed the English to control an area that could be walked off in a day and a half. of the Delaware Indians.
Seeking to maintain control of at least some territory, the Haudenosaunee finally The treaty, likely a forgery,
allowed the British to add
agreed to this Walking Purchase. The Delaware tribe, far smaller, was then pres- territory that could be walked
sured into letting Pennsylvania officials walk off the boundaries. Through this and off in a day and a half.

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