March 2, 1789
Pennsylvania ended its prohibition on theatrical performances. Pennsylvania Quakers lumped the theater in with bearbaiting and bullbaiting, cock fighting, equestrian performances and horse racing and tight-rope dancing, which they felt encouraged idleness and drew “great sums of money from weak and inconsiderate persons.” In 1859 the Privy Council in England struck down the Pennsylvania legislature’s attempt to ban all theater in the colony but the First Continental Congress in 1774 banned all theatrical performances and other “diversions and entertainments.”
