Founding Documents and America's 250th Birthday: Pennsylvania's 1776 Constitution Turns 250

Founding documents are taking center stage as America’s 250th birthday approaches, and one of them reaches a remarkable milestone this week. On September 28, 1776, Pennsylvania adopted its first state constitution, the first charter of government written and approved after independence. Tomorrow marks 250 years to the day, and it is a fitting moment to revisit the documents that gave the young nation its shape.

Pennsylvania’s 1776 Constitution is not as famous as the Declaration of Independence signed that summer or the United States Constitution completed in 1787, but its story belongs alongside them. It was drafted in the middle of a war, in a city serving as the heart of the Revolution, by people determined to build a government from first principles. Understanding what they wrote, and how later founders built on it, is exactly the kind of learning that founding documents can bring to America’s 250th birthday celebrations.

Why founding documents matter for America’s 250th birthday

Pennsylvania’s constitution opened with a declaration of rights, one of the first of its kind in America. It declared that all men are born equally free, protected religious liberty, and affirmed rights to bail, to representation, and to hold office. At a time when most colonies tied voting to owning property, Pennsylvania extended the vote to taxpaying men who owned no land. For its era, it was among the most democratic governments in the world.

The document also took risks. It concentrated power in a single-house legislature and a Supreme Executive Council, an experiment in simplifying government that later framers, including those who wrote the federal Constitution in 1787, studied closely. Some features endured; others were replaced by Pennsylvania’s 1790 constitution. That is one of the most valuable lessons founding documents offer for America’s 250th birthday: self-government is not a finished product. It is a continuing conversation between generations.

Bringing founding documents into the 250th birthday classroom

Anniversary milestones like this one give teachers a natural opening. A class can read the opening declaration of rights from Pennsylvania’s 1776 Constitution and compare it with the Bill of Rights added to the United States Constitution in 1791. Students can trace where ideas traveled, what changed, and why. Pennsylvania itself is marking the anniversary this fall with ceremonies and educational programming, part of a broader America 250 celebration building toward the nation’s semiquincentennial.

Those conversations work best when students hold the actual text. A pocket Constitution gives every student a personal copy to read, annotate, and keep. The 917 Society exists to make that possible: we provide free pocket Constitutions to 8th graders across the country. Teachers and schools can request free 8th grade Constitutions through our website, and families and supporters can learn more about the 8th grade program.

Founding documents and America’s 250th birthday: a year of learning

One anniversary date cannot carry a full year of civic learning, but a calendar of them can. From the Declaration in July 1776 to Pennsylvania’s constitution in September, from the Articles of Confederation to the drafting of the federal Constitution in 1787, the founding era offers milestone after milestone for classrooms to explore. Each one is a chance to ask what the founders got right, what they got wrong, and what responsibility we carry today.

As Pennsylvania’s 1776 Constitution turns 250, the most meaningful way to honor it is to keep its central idea alive: that ordinary people, given the text and the tools, can govern themselves. That idea only survives when each new generation reads the documents for themselves.

If you share that conviction, you can help put founding documents into students’ hands for America’s 250th birthday. Supporters can make a contribution through the 917 Society donation page, and schools seeking free 8th grade Constitutions can submit a request online.