Editing Act of Consolidation of 1854 (section)

== Pre-Consolidation Philadelphia ==

Before 1854, Philadelphia County was a patchwork of independent municipalities, each a product of separate incorporation acts passed by the state legislature over the preceding century. The City of Philadelphia, dating to William Penn's 1701 charter, occupied only the original planned city between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, from Vine Street to Cedar (South) Street. As population spread beyond these boundaries, new municipalities incorporated to provide local services: Northern Liberties (1771), Southwark (1762), Moyamensing (1812), Kensington (1820), Spring Garden (1813), and Penn Township (1829), among others. By the 1850s, Philadelphia County contained the city, thirteen townships, six boroughs, and nine districts—29 separate governmental entities sharing a single county.<ref name="warner">{{cite book |last=Warner |first=Sam Bass |title=The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of Its Growth |year=1968 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>

This fragmentation had developed organically as communities sought local control over their affairs, but it created serious problems as the region urbanized. The original City of Philadelphia—wealthy, commercial, dominated by established families—was surrounded by working-class districts that had grown up to house laborers serving the port and manufactories. Kensington was known for its textile mills and Irish immigrant workers; Moyamensing contained the city's poorest neighborhoods; Northern Liberties was a mix of industry and commerce. These districts had different interests and different political alignments than the old city, and consolidation threatened to shift political power in unpredictable ways. The [[Consolidation Era Politics]] of the pre-1854 period reflected these tensions.<ref name="steinberg">{{cite book |last=Steinberg |first=Allen |title=The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Philadelphia, 1800-1880 |year=1989 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill}}</ref>