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The story I will tell starts in the 1500’s. It is the
story of the colony of Pennsylvania.
The story involves a King, Quakers, George Washington, and his
army.
In the
1500’s explorers from Europe sailed to “the new world.”
They called it New Sweden. The
king of England gave New Sweden to a man named William Penn.
Then the king named New Sweden Pennsylvania. That means
“Penn’s woods” in Latin. Penn was a Quaker. Quakers
are Christians who believe in peace and equality. They quake when
they pray. He wanted to start a colony where people are free to
worship.
Penn
wanted to have a capital and named the capital Philadelphia.
This means “City of Brotherly Love” in Greek. He wanted
to have the colony’s laws be fairer than England's laws.
There
were Native Americans. Penn and other colonists and the Native Americans
came to an agreement. They
agreed to live in peace forever.
Between
1689 and1763 England and France fought four wars over who would control
America. England started
taxing the colonists to pay for soldiers.
If they refused they would be killed.
The colonists asked England to stop taxing them…
it did not work. So
then Thomas Jefferson was asked to help write the Declaration of
Independence. On July 4,
1776 the Congress approved the Declaration of Independence so the 13
colonies became states. The congress asked George Washington to be the
leader of the American army. They
spent the winter at Valley Forge. Unfortunately
3,000 men died that winter.
I found
a lot of things very interesting. Thomas
Jefferson helped to write the Declaration of Independence!
George Washington’s army stayed at Valley Forge for a winter.
I found out that one of the first Congress meeting places was in
Philadelphia!
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