For nearly 75 years, the colony of Pennsylvania had sustained a relatively peaceful era thanks to its Quaker principles of pacifism.

However, the French and Indian War, an international contest for control of the American continent, shattered those old ambitions.

To further complicate matters, one armed conflict would soon lead to another.

Throughout these momentous times, Pennsylvanians played a major role in the coming of the American Revolution.

[music playing] With the English finally victorious at the end of the French and Indian War, King George III issued the proclamation of 1763, which drew a line down the Appalachian Mountains, formally segregating Natives and White colonists in the name of avoiding future conflicts.

This proclamation also restricted Indian trade until formal peace could be made.

Many colonists were outraged by the King's decree, believing that they had the right to advance westward and conquer more lands.

A push and pull struggle ensued.

From Northern Michigan to the Ohio country, Indigenous societies rose up to blunt incursions when royal officials could not halt the encroachment of land speculators.

This uprising became known as Pontiac's war.

Seneca chief Guyasuta laid siege to Fort Pitt in the summer of 1763, and that August, was driven off in a dramatic backwoods clash against British Colonel Henry Bouquet at the Battle of bushy run.

That December, a paranoid and violent mob known as the Paxton Boys set out with the aim to kill every Indian in Pennsylvania to avert attacks on colonial settlements.

They brutally murdered 20 innocent susquehannocks before Pennsylvania's government finally intervened, but additional challenges soon arose.

In October 1764, meeting between Henry bouquet and a delegation of Natives negotiated the return of English prisoners seized on the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers.

At the conclusion of the Council, the Chiefs handed over 200 captives.

Preferring their lives in Indigenous culture, several of the former hostages escaped Fort Pitt and fled to their adopted Indian families.

But following a series of additional treaties, sales, and concessions, many of the nations and tribes that once occupied Pennsylvania would ultimately be forced to move to Ohio or beyond.

By that time, friction between the colonies and the mother country was already growing apparent.

In March 1765, trade with Natives remained illegal unless authorized by a British Crown agent.

The so-called Black Boys, led by James Smith, opposed renewed trade with Natives due to recent attacks.

Their primary concern was that traders would sell weapons to Indigenous enemies.

When Smith and his Black Boys destroyed such goods, some of the men were arrested and had their firearms seized by Redcoat infantry.

Continued frustration resulted in Smith's followers skirmishing with his Majesty's troops at Fort Loudon that November.

The incident is considered, by some, to be the first armed resistance of colonists opposing British rule in North America.

Pennsylvania soon experienced its most dramatic political transition in the volatile years following the French and Indian War.

Taxes were levied by parliament upon unrepresented colonies to pay massive military debts.

Much of the colonists agitation was purely economic, driven by the empire's monopoly on trade and its grip on westward expansion.

Although Quakers and financial and political power often bristled at talk of violence or separation, debate nonetheless intensified.

In the autumn of 1774, delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies assembled in Philadelphia's Carpenters Hall to define America's grievances, clarify the constitutional relationship between the colonies and the crown, and prepare for the contingencies of renewed resistance should the situation grow even more precarious.

When hostilities at last erupted in April 1775, many Pennsylvanians perceived bloodshed in New England as a point of no return.

The rebellion evolved into a revolution, a crusade of a segment of the people to gain the right of self-government.

At that hour, citizens had little option but to choose sides.

Patriot Benjamin Franklin broke ties with his loyalist son, who was the colonial governor of New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Quaker and lawyer John Dickinson favored American liberty, but feared independence might also bring ruin.

Following the opening shots of the war, residents of Westmoreland County released the Hanna's town resolves that May foreshadowing the Declaration of Independence.

The proclamation denounced Parliament's tyranny and threatened uprising if necessary.

Yet many of the signers still professed loyalty to the King.

That same month, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia with the monumental task of establishing inter-colonial government with the capacity to wage war.

Massachusetts delegate, John Adams, privately confided, we know not what to do first.

With the probability of war intensifying, Pennsylvanians anxiously awaited political developments that might portend the fate of their country.

Among them was Philadelphia attorney James Allen, whose father had created Allentown in 1762.

A loyalist, like all men in his immediate family, Allen was forced to navigate the uncertain political terrain of his own city.

He wrote in July 1775, we have no hopes, but that the struggle will be soon over.

If it continues, America is ruined.

Whoever gets the better.

These reflections are in the mouths of all thinking people.

Allen reveals the complicated nature of colonial identity.

Fealty to the monarch did not always come without critical cynicism.

As Allen and several loyalist neighbors were soon to discover, maintaining fidelity to King George III would not be without consequences.

All the while, even select members of the Second Continental Congress expressed apprehension prehension of severing ties with the mother country.

So how could the colonists proceed?

It seemed that the messy politics and division were only bound to worsen.

For everyday citizens, the American Revolution was about to append their lives in the most surprising and dramatic of ways.

Soon, many Pennsylvanians would depart their homes in the back country and March 4th 100 miles to help relieve the beleaguered city of Boston.

Indeed, a series of regional incidents had set into motion the events that would create a new nation, and nothing would ever be the same.

Join us in the future as we continue to explore Pennsylvania's fascinating role in the American Revolution and beyond.

And until next time, stay curious.

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