UNIT 12: FREEDOM - William Penn (1644-1718), the Quaker Movement, and Pennsylvania Colony (W12:D1)
Early Years: You know by now that the Americas were named after Amerigo Vespucci, and the Hudson River and many other northern locations were named after Henry Hudson, but did you know that the entire state of Pennsylvania was named after William Penn, who owned the entire state? So how does someone have enough money to own a state’s worth of land? What do you have to do to be given that, and then give it away to other settlers - many of whom you don’t even know? He did so much more than just give away land. William Penn was born into a wealthy family, son to a couple from the Netherlands, living in England. His father was an Admiral to the People’s Navy during the English Civil War, and was awarded land in Ireland by Oliver Cromwell (taken from Irish Catholics who failed in the Irish Rebellion). After a failed naval mission to take the Caribbean, the Penn family were exiled to their Irish estate. Growing up a Puritan, with a Puritan demeanor, Penn was very strict to the rules. At around 15 years old, his family took in a Quaker missionary to their home, where he learned much of their faith. When Cromwell died, Penn led the rescue of the exiled Prince Charles, and brought him back to England. As a reward, he was made a Lord over the entire Royal Navy. While at Oxford, it was acceptable for young men in Penn’s position to harass those of lower class and religious minorities; he wouldn’t though. He felt a kinship with the often-abused Quakers. For this reason, he would not participate in the activities of others but instead secluded himself to his studies. He began to study the philosophies of economics, politics, and science. Between Oxford firing his mentors, and their increased religious rules, Penn was seen as a rebel and was expelled. This threatened his father’s job and mother’s social status, so they sent him to Paris to stay. While in Paris, he stayed with a Protestant theologian. He began to adapt a less strict demeanor of his Puritan beliefs, and replace them with his mentor’s belief of free will religion. Two years later, he returned to England and started his short term in college (because, at that time, the Dutch and England went to war). Penn followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the Royal Navy. He became an emissary between his father and the King, and when the war ended, his father returned triumphant to a London, though burdened by the Plague, in 1665. During that time, he was sent to care for the affairs of their Irish estate. While away, London burned, in the Great Fire, and upon returning, the city was in a very somber state. At age 22, he converted to join the Quakers. They had no political leanings, as the Catholics, Protestants, and Puritans all had. They would not pay tithes or swear loyalty to royalty that was not appointed by God. His father was very upset by his son’s choices and after trying to reason with his son, ended up throwing him out of the house. Penn moved in with a humble Quaker family, and made friends with George Fox, who started the Quakers. His fight for religious freedom and individualism is said to have extended the Protestant Reformation and began the fight for individual freedom. Imprisonment Now, when Penn believed in something, he poured his whole soul- and most of his effort - into it, which made him fit in well with the Quakers, who were known as very loyal to, and pious about, their faith. Now that he was a Quaker, he would use his great writing skills to spread the word, starting with a pamphlet called the Truth Exalted: To Princes, Priests, and People, written in 1668, which criticized royalty, church, and state, but mostly all religions excluding the Quakers. He considered it the truest of Christian faiths, in all the Catholic world. His friend and writer, Samuel Pepys, thought the book was “ridiculous”. For this act of defiance, and his follow-up book, The Sandy Foundation, he was imprisoned and thrown into the tower of London, which housed many Quakers. Bishops wanted Penn imprisoned until he would take back the words written in the pamphlets, but could legally only charge him with publishing without a license. The warrant for his arrest claimed “blasphemy,” and was signed by Charles II himself. In his cell, they provided him with pen and paper to recount what he had written, but he immediately wrote another scathing book. After eight months, he was released, though defiant that he would not take back his words. Over the next few years, thousands of Quakers were imprisoned, and their lands taken by the Crown. Penn was arrested many more times. One of the reasons was his defiance to the 1664 Conventicle Act, in which the government made it unlawful for more than 5 people to assemble outside the family, for any religious purpose, except if you were the Church of England. He was denied seeing the charges, or being allowed to plead his case to the jury who tried him. The jury of his peers, in return, gave him a sentence of not-guilty and when they were pressed to reconsider, they defied the judge and were sent to prison for a few days, to reconsider. The judge threatened the jury with starvation, unless they came back with a guilty verdict. The jury sued the court for their freedom, in what is known as the “Bushel’s Case,” which was a turning point in London, and allowed all juries to be free from control of the judge. During his imprisonment, his father was close to death and wanted to meet with his son. William Penn pleaded with his father not to “purchase my liberty,” but his father denied his request, so that he could see his son one more time. It is recorded in his father’s journals that he had gained a great respect for his son and his faith, that he would stand up for his beliefs, and had grown into a man to be honored. To shield his son one more time, before he died, his father wrote to the Duke of York, heir to the throne, and pleaded for him to protect his son from that time forth. This was the last act of kindness his father could give, and was accepted, because of his service to the Crown. Upon his father’s death, Penn came into a very large inheritance, but this did not sway him from his beliefs, and he was sent to jail, once again. Six months later, after being released, he married his love, after a four-year engagement - which stayed strong even though he was constantly imprisoned. During this time, also, the Quakers themselves began to divide, due to the philosophies of Penn, versus the founder and mentor of Penn’s faith. Because of this, he set off to do missionary work in Germany and Holland. The Resolution - When he returned, there was such a rift between the Crown and Quakers that Penn proposed a resolution: an emigration of all Quakers - to leave England, for a plot of land in North America. Because of hostilities between the Quakers and Puritans, they could not join any of the other colonies, so he proposed a new colony be started. Penn used much of his inherited wealth, along with other Quakers’ wealth, to buy nearly half of what is now New Jersey. As the Quakers began to move to the area allotted to them, their numbers became too high; Penn pleaded with the Crown to provide them additional land, so more Quakers could emigrate, and the Crown could be rid of these people. Penn purchased another area - the other half of New Jersey and northern Maryland. He also negotiated sovereign rule over the territory, with all rights and privileges. Penn continued to purchase more land that was owned by older noblemen in England, as quickly as possible. The Crown even provided them with more land, and in return, Penn would see that one fifth, the “King’s Fifth,” of all minerals (gold and silver) were shipped back to the King, and Penn would release the King from the tens of thousands of pounds (English currency) that was owed to him, because of his father. He first called this land New Wales, then changed it to Sylvania; but Charles II simply called it Pennsylvania. He then turned to do what he did best, and in March of 1681, wrote a charter of Liberties for the entire area - a proto constitution - claiming liberty for the people. Unlike other settlements, he would not allow anyone in his territory to abuse, mistreat, or harm the indigenous people, who still occupied land that was purchased, “As the Lord gave it me over all and great opposition,… I would not abuse His love, nor act unworthy of His providence, and so defile what came to me clean." To promote settlers to come, he wrote a number of pamphlets to be spread throughout Europe, promising freedom of religion and beliefs. He attracted many, beyond that of the Quakers, including Huguenots, Mennonites, Amish, Catholic, Lutherans, and Jews from throughout Europe. He quickly returned to the pen, to strip any man too much power, including his own; safeguard free land ownership and enterprise; create a new criminal and justice system, where death sentences were only given to murderers and treason - unlike the hundreds of crimes to be executed for in England; and, instead of being locked in cells until criminals changed, prisons would be a place for rehabilitation. Penn knew the prison and justice systems very well, as he had many run-ins with it in England. He outlawed drunkenness, fighting, cruelty to animals, swearing, and idle amusements, such as gambling. Much of his philosophy on liberties came from John Locke, who spoke against the English ways of ruling over those beneath the Crown. As Penn experienced life in the Americas, he made amendments to his charter of liberties, adding new laws, according to experiences. These laws would need to be passed by the Assembly of elected representatives. He hoped that his amendment process allowed voices to be heard, and would stop rebellion and violence among this territory. Note also, that the Crown had the right, in their agreement with Penn, to override any law he wrote, but his skillful writing made England comfortable with the laws struck. He did see opposition among his own people, as they thought Penn was setting himself up as a ruler. In 1685 Charles II died, and James, Duke of York, became King. One of his first acts was to protect Penn, as was his promise to Penn’s father. Penn, in return, supported the King's actions to regulate Parliament, of which Penn was part. During this time, the colonies were beginning to have serious issues. Penn’s lack of attention to detail allowed him to sign a document that gave control of Pennsylvania to Philip Ford, his business manager and fellow Quaker, who, in return, charged Penn a rent, which Penn could not pay. Ford was also found embezzling from Penn’s Estate. They came to an agreement, to keep his failings of legal title quiet. When he returned, he found the territory thriving, with 18,100 settlers - 3,000 of them residing in Philadelphia alone. The economy was thriving, the people were financially stable, and they were relatively happy and at peace. Though there was some opposition, Penn began to open schools to all inhabitants, free to everyone - no matter color or religion, in order to have a well-educated workforce. Philadelphia became the center of the scientific, medical, and psychiatric community. In his late writings, he wrote about federalizing the other American colonies, and stopping all slavery. Now, Penn had indentured servants and even allowed for debts to be paid through indentured servitude, but he did not support slavery and its injustices. In 1688, during the Germantown Protest, he proposed that all lifetime slaves be freed, after a time of servitude, and that they could live in his proposed Freetown; but the Pennsylvania Assembly rejected the idea. It took the Quakers another 50 years to end slavery. After this rejection by the Assembly, Penn found it his mission to purchase slaves and provide them with good homes. It is said that he cared for all those under his employment. In his will, signed 1701, it was legally binding that “I give to my Servts, John and Mary Sach three hundred acres between them; to James Logan one thousand acres, and my blacks (given) their freedom, as under my hand already; and to ould Sam 100 acres…". In 1758, Pennsylvania (and Quakers alike) abolished all slavery, including indentured servitude. In 1701, Penn and his wife returned to England, when the French threatened this charter of Pennsylvania. In 1702, Ford died, and his widow, Bridget Ford, threatened to sell all of Pennsylvania, which her husband had embezzled from Penn. She threatened to scrap the Constitution of Pennsylvania. So he tried the only other option, to sell Pennsylvania to the Crown, if they kept the charter of civil liberties Penn had established. Bridget Ford took this matter to the courts in England and Penn landed himself in debtor’s prison, charged with unpaid rent to Bridget. The local Quakers bailed him out. In 1712, more attacks came upon his charter of Pennsylvania, but by this time, Penn was old and frail, and didn’t have the stamina to fight. He tried once more to sell the land to the Crown, with his former agreement, but suffered a major stroke. A second stroke left him unable to speak. He died penniless, in 1718. He spent every penny he had to secure the rights of the people of Pennsylvania, including slaves. Those rights would live on to help establish the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution. Activity: Freedom to Believe (Part 1) - This is for you to read, not something to turn in. Write yourself a letter. If you could sum it up in one page, how would you describe what you believe? Write in the letter where this belief came from, and how it started for you. Tell your future self what you believe, and why you believe it. This letter will stay in this book until you pick it up again, sometime in the future. This is for no one else’s eyes - only your own. Dear (State your name) __________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________
Part #2: In two lines, what did you tell yourself?
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What would you do, as an individual, to fight for those freedoms?
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Have you ever felt persecuted for your beliefs and how did you overcome that “attack”?
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Have you shared them with anyone else? How about your parents? If not, please do. This will only make your beliefs grow stronger, and like Penn experienced, it will garner their admiration.
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