William Penn was imprisoned four times in England for his Quaker faith before founding Pennsylvania in 1681. This episode covers Penn's theology, his treaty with the Delaware people, and the framework of government he created that made Pennsylvania one of the most diverse and tolerant places in the colonial world. Students will see how Penn's 'Holy Experiment' shaped American ideas about religious freedom and representative government.

Key Takeaways

• Penn was imprisoned four times in England, including a stint in the Tower of London, before he received his colonial charter. His faith cost him dearly before it built him a colony.

• King Charles II granted Penn the Pennsylvania charter partly to pay off debts owed to Penn's late father, an admiral in the Royal Navy.

• Penn forged a treaty with the Delaware people and bought land from them rather than simply claiming it, an approach that set Pennsylvania apart from most other colonies.

• Penn's legal framework included a bicameral legislature, protections against excessive punishment, private property rights, and trial by jury.

• Pennsylvania attracted settlers of many faiths, including Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Lutherans, and Catholics, making Philadelphia one of the largest and most diverse cities in colonial America.

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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What did Quakers believe that made them so controversial in 17th-century England?

Quakers rejected all formal church hierarchy, creeds, and rituals. They believed every person had direct access to God's light without the need for priests, sacraments, or ordained ministers. They also refused to swear oaths, take off their hats for social superiors, or participate in war. These practices challenged both the Church of England and the social order, which is why Quakers were frequently imprisoned and persecuted.

Q2: Why did King Charles II give William Penn such a large land grant?

Charles II owed a significant debt to Penn's father, Admiral Sir William Penn, who had been a loyal supporter and naval commander during the Restoration. When the elder Penn died, the king transferred the debt to his son. Granting William Penn a colonial charter was a way to settle that debt while also conveniently relocating a troublesome religious minority across the Atlantic.

Q3: How did Penn's approach to the Delaware people differ from other colonial founders?

Penn negotiated directly with the Delaware people and paid for the land he settled rather than claiming it by conquest or charter alone. He also learned the Delaware language and worked to maintain peaceful relations with neighboring tribes. While his successors didn't always maintain his standards, Penn's own approach to indigenous relations was notably more respectful than most of his contemporaries.

Q4: What was Penn's 'Holy Experiment' and did it succeed?

Penn called Pennsylvania his 'Holy Experiment,' by which he meant an attempt to build a society on Quaker principles of tolerance, simplicity, and conscience-driven governance. By most measures, it worked. Pennsylvania attracted settlers of many faiths, grew rapidly, and developed one of the most open and prosperous colonial economies. Philadelphia became a leading city, and the colony's legal framework influenced the constitutional thinking of the founding generation.

Q5: How did Pennsylvania's founding connect to the later U.S. Constitution?

Penn's charter established principles that would reappear in the Constitution: a bicameral legislature, protections against cruel punishment, freedom of conscience, and the idea that government derives legitimacy from the consent of the governed. When the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787, its delegates were deliberating in a city built on these foundations. Penn's influence on American political thinking, though often understated, was substantial.

A Religious Outlaw Becomes a Founder

In 1666, a 22-year-old British aristocrat became a member of the new and controversial Christian sect, the Society of Friends. They were commonly known as the Quakers. The young convert's father was an admiral in the Royal Navy and a close ally to King Charles II. Six years earlier, Charles had restored the British crown to power and the Church of England to her position as the nation's official church. 

The king viewed the Quakers as a threat to the Order of the Realm. Across England and Europe, the admiral's son traveled with founding Quaker George Fox and wrote the first detailed account of Quaker belief. By age 24, the young zealot found himself in the Tower of London, the first of four imprisonments there. His name: William Penn. In the old world, he was a religious outlaw. In the new world, he founded Pennsylvania. Penn's vision differed sharply from the strict Puritan order of New England, the subject of our episode on Winthrop's city upon a hill.

A Charter, a Treaty, and a New Colony

Rejecting all formal religion, Quakers gathered in meeting houses. The gatherings were marked by long periods of silent worship. Quakers held that each believer bears the inward light of God's spirit. Anyone could break the silence of a meeting and be a messenger to the friends gathered there. In the late 1600s, tensions were high between Charles II and the English Quakers. William Penn, a regular target of persecution, envisioned a solution: the Quakers would immigrate to America. 

In 1681, King Charles granted Penn a charter for a massive stretch of land north of Maryland and made him proprietor. In effect, he gave Penn the greatest land stake in all of America. The king did so partially in payment for debts owed to Penn's late father. Soon afterward, Penn traveled to America, forged a treaty with the natives, and began buying up tracts of the designated land. Penn wanted to call the colony New Wales or Sylvania, the Latin term for forest or woods. Charles II renamed it Pennsylvania, not for the governor, but for his late father, the admiral. Maryland had likewise become a haven for a persecuted religious minority, as we cover in our episode on Catholics in colonial America.

Building Pennsylvania's Government

Penn went to work founding the new colony. He created a framework for its government, including a bicameral legislature: an upper house, the Council, and a lower house, the Assembly. Penn also secured legal protections against excessive punishments and provided for free enterprise, private property, and trial by jury. Reflective of his Quaker faith, among the prohibitions included in Penn's law were swearing, cursing, lying, and drunkenness. Although Quakers like Benjamin Lay and John Woolman would be leading advocates for abolition, slavery was tolerated in early Pennsylvania as it was in all the northern colonies at the time. William Penn himself owned slaves. 

In 1682, Penn founded the city of Philadelphia. The name derives from the Greek for brotherly love. In 1684, Penn faced the onset of a protracted legal battle. Charles Calvert of Maryland, also known as Baron Baltimore, disputed the southern border of Pennsylvania. The battle continued for more than 80 years. It was not finally settled until 1767, when the Mason-Dixon line was set as the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. In 1701, Penn wrote a new law for the colony, the Charter of Privileges, which served as Pennsylvania's constitution until the American Revolution. Among its central features were religious liberty and freedom of speech, precursors to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Penn's Legacy in Philadelphia and Beyond

William Penn lived out his final years in England, marked by financial and legal troubles. In 1718, a stroke robbed him of the ability to speak. Penn died from a second stroke that same year. He left the world penniless, but his legacy is rich. In 1775, Penn's Quaker successors organized the first convocation ever held for the abolition of slavery. The abolitionists convened in Philadelphia, the city Penn founded. 

One year later, in 1776, the founders gathered in Philadelphia and declared America's independence from Great Britain. In 1787, they met once more in the city of brotherly love, this time to write America's Constitution. The young nation's new law was very similar to Penn's frame of government and Charter of Privileges. In 1863, the North named its largest training camp for Black soldiers Camp William Penn, located in Philadelphia. In 1894, Philadelphians crowned their city hall with a statue of William Penn. His bronze image weighs more than 53,000 pounds. At 37 feet high, it is the tallest statue on top of any building in the world. The religious ferment Penn helped seed would later catch fire across all the colonies in the revival we cover in our episode on the Great Awakening.