Commonwealth vs. State
Saturday December 9, 2006
I discovered a great answer to the question of why Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts are all officially "commonwealths" and not "states" and the U.S. government site, Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government for Kids...
What is a commonwealth vs. state? Is Virginia a state or a commonwealth? How many commonwealth states do we have in the U.S.?
There is no difference between a commonwealth and a state in the U.S. To Locke, Hobbes, and other 17th-century writers the term "commonwealth" meant an organized political community -- what we today call a "state." Officially Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts are all commonwealths. When Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts became part of the United States, they merely took the old form of state in their title.
Today, commonwealth also means a political unit having local autonomy but voluntarily united with the U.S. These are Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
I found this.....hope it helps :o)