The Best Poor Man's Country: A Geographical Study of Early Southeastern Pennsylvania

Abstract

In many respects early Pennsylvania was prototype of North American development. Its conservative defense of liberal individualism, its population of mixed national and religious origins, its dispersed farms, county seats, and farm-service villages, and its mixed crop and livestock agriculture served as models for much of rural Middle West. To many western Europeans in eighteenth century, life in early Pennsylvania offered a veritable paradise and refuge from oppression. Some called it the best poor man's country in world. The role of cultural backgrounds is important in this study of development of early southeastern Pennsylvania, and as important is interplay of people with land. Lemon discusses settlement of land by western Europeans; geographical and social mobility of people; territorial organizations of farmlands, towns, and counties; and regional variations in land use, especially farming practices. Providing deeper access into processes of social change, The Best Poor Man's Country remains a significant addition to literature on colonial American historiography.