Revolutionary Conversations Across the Atlantic: Jane Austen and Greensburg, Pennsylvania

While Jane Austen was quietly reshaping the English novel from her writing table in the late 18th century, the town of Greensburg, Pennsylvania was coming into its own on the other side of the Atlantic. Founded officially in 1799 and named after Continental Army General Nathanael Greene, Greensburg emerged during the very decades that shaped Austen’s works—a period defined by its social change and the growing, steady belief that individuals, like communities, might be improved. 

Though Austen never crossed the ocean, Greensburg’s historical rhythms feel strikingly familiar to readers of her novels. Both Austen’s fiction and Greensburg’s development are products of post-revolutionary societies, a parallel that provides a unique space to both contextualize and enjoy Austen’s work. 

Photo of Main Street in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1912. Retrieved from: https://www.wtae.com/article/in-photos-greensburg-then-now/7399825

Long before Greensburg became the county seat of Westmoreland County, the region surrounding the region played a strategic role in America’s early military history. Just a short distance away stands Fort Ligonier, originally constructed in 1758 during the French and Indian War. Although predating the founding of Greensburg itself, this imperial military presence shaped the character of nearby settlements, and lingered long after the fort’s original purpose had passed. 

A few miles west of Fort Ligonier lay two other major militarized spaces near Greensburg: Hanna’s Town and Fort Pitt. The former, Hanna’s Town—located roughly nine miles from Greensburg—served as the first seat of government for Westmoreland County before it was attacked in 1782. The town suffered a large amount of damage and never fully recovered; in 1786, Greensburg was officially declared the county seat. 

The latter, Fort Pitt, was one of the most significant British military outposts in North America. During the American Revolution, it functioned as the western headquarters of the Continental Army. Even after the war’s end in 1783, the United States Army maintained a small garrison at the fort, further tying the region to the rhythms of military life.

It was within this post-revolutionary landscape that Greensburg Pennsylvania developed as a small rail-road settlement, propelled by the pursuit of permanence after decades of upheaval. Courts, churches, schools, and local business gradually began to fill the town. 

Years later, in 1918, Seton Hill College officially marked its charter as a four-year women’s institution, founded by the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. This further solidified Greensburg as a space of women’s education and moral formation. The values promoted by the university likewise root Greensburg within the central concerns of Austen’s fiction, where women’s social futures are often determined by their access to knowledge, judgment, and self-improvement. 

An early photo of Seton Hill University, then called St. Josephs Academy,  taken in 1889. Retrieved from: https://www.setonhill.edu/why-seton-hill/our-origin-story/seton-hill-then-now.html

Jane Austen’s novels, though famously domestic in scale, are never far from the shadow of war. Officers appear regularly—sometimes charming, sometimes dangerous, but often disruptive. In Pride and Prejudice, for instance, it is only after George Wickham, a militia officer, flees with Lydia Bennet that Mr. Darcy has an opportunity to counter his pride, revealing his character in a way that prompts Lizzy to soften her prejudice against him. A key component of Pride and Prejudice, then, is the unquestionable effect the militia had on both morality and everyday life during Austen’s time. 

Austen’s characters navigate inherited hierarchies made newly uncertain by war, wealth, and movement. Similarly, Greensburg emerged during a moment when older political systems had been overturned and new civic identities were still being tested. Both worlds reflect societies learning and adjusting amid this social strife. 

Hosting the Jane Austen Summer Program in Greensburg situates Austen’s work within a broader historical world—one shaped by politics, morality, and the careful construction of society. In this way, Greensburg is a living example of the kind of post-revolutionary society Austen would have understood intimately, providing readers with a unique space to immerse themselves within the world of Jane Austen.

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Pride, Prejudice, and the Pursuit of Happiness will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence through a four-day public humanities program exploring the Enlightenment roots of American democracy and the transatlantic exchange of political ideas. To honor this milestone, JASP is relocating from UNC Chapel Hill to Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania, a state closely associated with the American founding.

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