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Charlene Griffin Andrew Miller American History May 1, 2012

Where Did William Penn First Place His Feet on American Soil?

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William Penn was born on October 14, 1644 in London, England and was the eldest son of Admiral Sir William Penn and Margret Jasper Penn. Penns father was a Dutch captain who served in the navy English Civil War and his mother, who was his fathers second wife, was the daughter of a rich Dutch merchant from Rotterdam. The time in which Penn was born was when people were beginning to form new religious groups outside of the Church of England. The Church of England, also known as Anglicanism, was Englands predominant religion after years of Catholicism. The Church began with King Henry VIII when he separated England from the rest of Catholic Europe, created a new church, and named the King of England its new head, replacing the Catholic pope as a religious leader. Under English law, every English citizen was expected to be a practicing Anglican and those were not were considered heretics and could be jailed, persecuted, or killed. At the age of 12, Penn experienced a vision that sent him a new religious path. Penn became influenced by the Quaker movement. Quakers, also known as members of the Religious Society of Friends, was established around the mid-17th century. Quakers were non-violent, opposed war, and believed that they had a direct contact with God. Throughout his adolescence, Penn would sit in on Quaker meetings in secret and come to believe in their doctrine. When Penn attended college, he was expelled for participating in a religious protest. Angered by his sons disgrace, Penns father had him sent to Paris hoping that the distance and time would remove the Quakers influence. However, when Penn returned to college later, he was influenced again by their teachings and was arrested. After another arrest for his involvement with the Quakers, Penn returned to his fathers home. His father remained very unhappy with Penn religious beliefs but father and son resolved their differences just before his father died.

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Penn pursed several activities on the behalf of the Quakers, writing books and making speeches. He also settled disputes between the Quaker landholders and he encouraged a jury not to let the judge make their decision. King Charles II granted William Penn a tract of land in America. This grant was to settle a debt the King owed Penns Father sixteen-thousand pounds. Penn had wanted to call the colony New Wales or 'Sylvania but King Charles II intervened, suggesting instead Pennsylvania, which means Penns Woods. William Penn sailed to Pennsylvania on the ship The Welcome, landing first in New Castle, Delaware and then to the Swedish settlement of Upland, Pennsylvania, which he renamed Chester. Chester was located between Delaware River and the Ridley and Chester Creeks extending northward to where there was a major tobacco plantation. Today, it is now the Crozer Theological Seminary, which Dr. Martin Luther King was an alumnus. Penn wanted his new colony to be a refuge for persecuted Christians from all lands. On December 4, 1682, he passed a law that guaranteed the right of liberty and religious freedom, thus making the colony the most democratic and free colony in the New World. Many English, Dutch, and Swedish settlers moved into the new colony to escape the religious persecution in Europe. Penn also kept the peace between the nearby Native Americans and he later purchased from them their land so that he could expand his territory. Penn was a rare few that chose to buy land from Native Americans, rather than simply take it. Pennsylvanias growth was largely because of Penns success as a promoter. He spoke on Pennsylvania opportunities offered by his colony that Germans, Dutch Sectarians, French Huguenots, Presbyterian Scots and distressed English Quakers found lucrative for farming and religious and political freedom. Pennsylvania was also prosperous and avoided starvation periods due to its fertile grounds. Pennsylvania also had a longer growing season compared to the rest

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northeast Colonial America. Pennsylvania was also known as a peace state. There were no military drafts as Quakers rejected the war. After Penn was granted Pennsylvania, he later sent his cousin Colonel Markham to the providence to act as his representative, or Deputy Governor. Markham made Chester the capital city of the Pennsylvania, and its city limits were further expanded. During the American Revolution, Chester was the storm center of the war because it was nearest to Philadelphia. The city saw much of the battles and suffered severely from the depredation of the British forces. On the night of the Battle of the Brandywine, the defeated Americans rallied in the villages and assembled into companies and regiments. They marched into Ridley, now Leiperville, where they prepared for battle. My method of experimental learning was I attended the Chester Historical Society and did research on William Penns landing in America. I saw maps of Chester in 1864 and I discovered that there are still monuments in Chester dedicated to William Penn where he first steps on American soil. Just a few blocks from where I live, there is a house where William Penn once stayed in located in Upland, Pennsylvania called the Cable Pusey House. Chester has a lot of history, but not too many people hear about it. My research shows that Chester had a very important part in American history. Chester was once very prominent and had many opportunities for employment. People came in from nearby and faraway places looking for work. Even though times have changed and Chester has lost some of its big businesses, a few companies still remain such as Kimberley-Scott Paper, Sun Oil, Congoleum and BP. Chester will rise again with the help of the new businesses such as PPL Park and Chesters Harrahs Casino & Racetrack. Chester has has five nationally registered historic places 1724 Chester Courthouse, Waterside

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Station of the Philadelphia Electric Company, Delaware County National Bank, Old Main and Chemistry Building Second Street Bridge, William Penn Landing Site. In the Franciscan Tradition, William Penn fostered Peace and he treated all men as equal. He also purchased land at a fair price. Penn could go into other territories unarmed and unescorted because he learned the other languages and was highly respected. Penn also believed in equally for women and encouraged women to speak out and to get an education. Penn saw no threat from other religious colonies. However, Penns equality beliefs did not include blacks as Penn did own slaves, despite the Quakers being opposed to slavery. The Quakers were the earliest group to protest against slavery 40 years after Penns death. Quakers became so fierce that Penn decided that it would be better to try to found a new, free, Quaker settlement in North America. Some Quakers had already moved to North America, but the New England Puritans, especially, were as negative towards Quakers as the people back home, and some of them had been banished to the Caribbean. Penn had hoped that Pennsylvania would be a profitable venture for himself and his family. However, the colony never turned a profit. In fact, Penn would later be imprisoned in England for debt and, at the time of his death in 1718, he was penniless. After the building plans for Philadelphia had been completed, and Penn's political ideas had been put into a workable form, Penn explored the interior. Penn also made a treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon, near Kensington in Philadelphia, under an elm tree. Penn chose to acquire lands for his colony through business rather than conquest. He paid the Indians 1200 pounds for their land under the treaty, an amount considered fair. Voltaire praised this "Great Treaty" as "the only treaty between those people [Indians and Europeans] that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed." Many regard the Great Treaty as a

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myth that sprung up around Penn. However, the story has had enduring power. The event has taken iconic status and is commemorated in a freeze on the United States Capitol. However, he did promote good treatment for slaves, and other Pennsylvania Quakers. Penn had wished to settle in Philadelphia himself, but financial problems forced him back to England in 1701. His financial advisor, Philip Ford, had cheated him out of thousands of pounds, and he had nearly lost Pennsylvania through Ford's machinations. The next decade of Penn's life was mainly filled with various court cases against Ford. He tried to sell Pennsylvania back to the state, but while the deal was still being discussed, he was hit by a stroke in 1712, after which he was unable to speak or take care of himself. Pennsylvania and Delaware separated into two provinces. And in 1696, William Markham's charter replaced the earlier 'Frame', though when Penn returned in 1701 he would again revise this version. By the time he left for good in November of that year, the colony's Assembly was elected yearly and enjoyed a more powerful position than the governor, who despite his veto power, was secondary to the legislative body. Though Penn planned to stay in the New World, settling at his manor Pennsbury, but further political troubles in England forced his return, and in 1712 suffered an attack of apoplexy which disabled him. His wife Hannah managed his affairs until Penn died in 1718, and after her death 1727 the proprietorship of Pennsylvania passed to their sons, John, Thomas, and Richard. Penn died in 1718 at his home in Ruscombe, near Twyford in Berkshire, and was buried next to his first wife in the cemetery of the Jordans Quaker meeting house at Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire in England. His family retained ownership of the colony of Pennsylvania until the American Revolution. William Penn appears in the Capitol in the context of his famous

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treaty with Delaware. In Gavelot's panel he is iconocized not for his Quakerism or even for founding of Pennsylvania, but rather for the manner in which these two issues converged in his dealings with Indians. Penn and his fellow Quakers were the first to call for better treatment of Slaves long before the Europeans were thinking of slaves as human beings, the Quakers were concerned about their souls. Penn colonies limited slavery for term years instead of a lifetime. Penn later limit future slavery in helping to create the Free Society of Traders, Penn included a clause allowing freedom to blacks after fourteen years of service, if the slave to be freed would turnover to the Society two-thirds of the produce grown on land given them. Penn granted all Blacks and Indians religious freedoms. He looked upon slaves not as property of a master but as a member of the family. His first black Admiral was Sampon, he acquired him while in Jamaica winning for the English Crown. Penn view that the soul of a man was more important than his body. He saw nothing wrong with controlling the labor of workman white, black as long as they were fair and humane treatment: he insists that every human being, regardless of skin color or social status, was a creature of God, equal in Gods sight and so entitled to equality, among men. William wanted to assure that whatever happen that his slaves would be freed, so he drafted two important papers that he did not show his family. One a last will and testament, to be released that if he died to liberate his servants. Three Years later, he wrote a new will, which did not include the emancipation which he had no intention to casting his servant but to have them living on or close to his estate. At the time of before William Penns death he live and died as a Slaveholder. William Penn did promote good treatment for slaves, and other Pennsylvania Quakers He later tried to

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sell Pennsylvania back to the state, but while still being discussed, he had a stroke in 1712 after which he was unable to speak or take care of himself. William Penn greatest acclaim was for his 1682 Great Treaty . William Penn assures Pennsylvania the right to private property, freedom from restrictions on business, free press and trail by jury. This was unheard of in other American colonies controlled by Puritans it was a

crime. Pennsylvania was known as a peace state there was no military drafts. Quaker rejected the war. Pennsylvania growth was because of Penn success . Pennsylvania avoided starvation periods due to the fertile grounds Pennsylvania also had longer growing seasons compared to northeast. Pennsylvania also lack tropical diseases that the South had.

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Works Cited "Thomas Penn." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2010): 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011. Abrams, Ann Uhry. "Benjamin West's Documentation of Colonial History: William Penn's Treaty with the Indians." Art Bulletin 64.1 (1982): 59. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2011. Curtis, Dave. "Penn State's Williams is back with 'a bang'." Sporting News 232.45 (2008): 70. Academic Miller, Perry. "WILLIAM PENN AS A SOCIAL PHILOSOPHER (Book)." American Literature 12.2 (1940): 252. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011.Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011. Holland, Rupert. William Penn, N, the Macmillan Company, 1965, 166 Krause, Sydney J. "Penn's Elm and Edgar Huntley: Dark `instruction of the heart'." American Literature 66.3 (1994): 463. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011. Kurki, Jani. "Twenty-First Century Penn: writings on the faith and practice of the people called Quakers by William Penn." Quaker Studies 9.2 (2005): 258-261. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011. Memorial to William Penn in Ireland, the Province of Munster: 1946Tully, Alan. "The Papers of William Miller, Perry. "WILLIAM PENN AS A SOCIAL PHILOSOPHER (Book)." American Literature 12.2 (1940): 252. Parsons, William T. "William Penn: A Biography." American Historical Review 82.3 (1977): 730. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2011.

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Penn, Vol. I, 1644-1679/The Papers of William Penn, Vol. II, 1680-1684 (Book Review)." Canadian Journal of History 21.2 (1986): 253. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011. References Kurki, Jani. "Twenty-First Century Penn: writings on the faith and practice of the people called Quakers by William Penn." Quaker Studies 9.2 (2005): 258-261. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2011. Scott, Donald. "Camp William Penn's Black Soldiers in Blue." America's Civil War 12.5 (1999): 44. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011.Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011. Soderland, Jean R. William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Marsh, Dawn. "Penn's Peaceable Kingdom: Shangri-la Revisited." Ethno history 56.4 (2009): 651-667. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2011. Tully, Alan, William Penns Legacy, Baltimore and London; The John Hopkins University Press, 1977, 250 United Europe from Erasmus to Kant." European Legacy 13.4 (2008): 401-411. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2011. Van Heerikhuizen, Annemarie. "How God Disappeared from Europe: Visions of a University of Press, 1983, 406 Van Heerikhuizen, Annemarie. "How God Disappeared from Europe: Visions of a United Europe from Erasmus to Kant." European Legacy 13.4 (2008): 401-411. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2011. Vancouver/ICMJE

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Waskie, Nicole. "The Story of "The Star-Spangled Banner"/William Penn: Shaping a Nation/America's First Highway.." School Library Journal 55.9 (2009): 180. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011. Wildes, Harry, William Penn, New York, Macmillan, 1974, 451 Young, Gordon. "Faire Land of William Penn." National Geographic 153.6 (1978): 730. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011.Holy Experiment." American Historical Review 115.3 (2010): 834-835. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 June 2011.