Pennsylvania

John Dickinson

John Dickinson, c. 1782—83
Lawyer, politician, writer, militia officer, signer of the Declaration of Independence; 1732—1808.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, 1785
Philadelphia printer, writer, scientist, inventor, signer of the Declaration of Independence, diplomat to France; 1706—90.

Robert Morris

Robert Morris, c. 1782
Signer of the Declaration of Independence, “Financier of the Revolution”; 1734—1806.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine, 1791
Author, revolutionary, political philosopher; 1737—1809.

Charles Willson Peale

Self-Portrait, 1795
American painter, soldier; created first American museum; 1741—1827.

Rembrandt Peale

Self-Portrait, 1828
American painter, son of Charles Willson Peale; 1778—1860.

Betsy Ross

The Birth of Old Glory, c. 1917
Philadelphia seamstress and upholsterer.

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush, c. 1818
Philadelphia doctor, signer of the Declaration of Independence; 1738—1820.

William Rush

Self-Portrait, 1822
American sculptor; 1756—1833.

Arthur St. Clair

Arthur St. Clair, 1782—84
Continental Army general, surrendered Fort Ticonderoga to the British; 1737—1818.

By attacking slavery more fiercely than ever before, Revolutionary Americans freed tens of thousands of slaves. But the Revolution’s libertarian and egalitarian message had perverse consequences. It forced those Southerners who chose to retain slavery to fall back on the alleged racial deficiencies of blacks as a justification for an institution that hitherto they had taken for granted and had never before needed to justify. The anti-slavery movement that arose out of the Revolution inadvertently produced racism in America.

— Gordon S. Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)