Religious TolerancePenn and other Quakers believed that everyone had to seek God in his or her own way. Penn also thought that religious tolerance – or “liberty of conscience” – would create stronger governments and wealthier societies. Other English thinkers in the 1600s shared these ideas. But Penn had the opportunity to act on his beliefs. In Pennsylvania, religious tolerance was the law. Show
Penn welcomed settlers from all faiths to Pennsylvania. Each of the other American colonies had established an official church, but Penn did not. He sought out religious groups suffering in Europe, and invited them to his colony. He even gave some groups land. Yet religious tolerance did not mean that colonists of all faiths had equal rights. Only Christians could vote or hold political office. But all settlers could take part in the social and economic life of Pennsylvania. Penn’s belief that “Religion and Policy…are two distinct things, have two different ends, and may be fully prosecuted without respect on to the other” took hold and became one of America’s most important ideals. Representative GovernmentDuring Penn’s time, older forms of government such as the “divine right of kings” were slowly giving way to a belief that stressed individual rights. In 1681, Penn crafted a government for Pennsylvania based on these Enlightenment principles. He rejected models of government that forced laws on citizens against their will. Penn emphasized self-government for the people. In 1696 the Assembly, an elected body of 36 men with power to accept or reject laws, demanded the power to make laws. While Penn disagreed, he nevertheless believed strongly in representative government. So he reluctantly changed the way Pennsylvania was governed. The will of the people was more important to him than his own ideas about government. Penn’s ideas inspired our nation’s founding fathers. Penn’s vision lives on in the American government’s most important document, the United States Constitution. Diversity in early PennsylvaniaPennsylvania quickly became America’s most diverse colony. Lenape Indians lived near the Delaware River. Dutch and Swedish settlers had farmed and traded in the region since the 1620s. During the 1680s, other European settlers arrived at Penn’s invitation. Some of them purchased slaves from Africa or the Caribbean. Penn needed settlers with many different skills to build his new colony. So he invited people from many backgrounds and classes to Pennsylvania. Some wealthy colonists immediately became leaders in the fledgling colony. Middle-class people worked as free laborers or small businessmen. And members of the “lower sorts” came as indentured servants. Pennsylvania, from the beginning and by Penn’s design, was a complex society of people of different ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds. This model of diversity became the basis for the American “melting pot.” Visit Pennsbury Manor and discover how William Penn’s ideals inspired the founding fathers.In the 1680s English Quaker William Penn established Pennsylvania through purchases and treaties with Native Americans. Like other British colonies on the continent, Pennsylvania attracted immigrants from the many rural households pushed off the land in Britain. What made Pennsylvania different was Penn’s extraordinary policy of religious toleration. He created a haven not only for Quakers but also for other dissenting groups persecuted in Europe. The “holy experiment” attracted immigrants from England, Germany, Ireland, France, and elsewhere. Pennsylvania became the most populous of the colonies. Religious DiversityPhiladelphia’s skyline, as seen from New Jersey, shows some of the varied religious institutions of the city. This engraving helps the viewer to find an Anglican church (1), a Presbyterian church (4), a Dutch Calvinist church (5), and a Quaker meeting house (6). Also in the city were Old Swedes’ Lutheran and St. George’s Methodist churches.  Reproduction of an engraving, 1768 Courtesy of Library of Congress QuakersQuakers, or the Society of Friends, adopted a plain life and style of dress, as seen in this Quaker woman’s bonnet. Their commitment to individual conscience, pacifism, and opposition to hierarchy made them radicals of their day. They met with persecution in England and most British colonies. Massachusetts Puritans even hanged several Quakers for preaching around 1660. Quaker meeting, by unknown British artist, late 1700s Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photograph © 2016 Associating for ImprovementThis plaque marked a Philadelphia building as insured by the Contributionship, a fire insurance association founded in 1752. Its design expressed the principle behind that organization: a joining of hands for mutual aid. Influenced by Quaker conscience and Enlightenment ideals of civic improvement, Philadelphians became renowned for forming many educational, fraternal, public service, and craft organizations. Baptism in the SchuylkillThis engraving shows an adult baptism in the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. On the shore, a minister preaches to a group of believers. Baptists were one of the evangelical Protestant groups that flourished in the Great Awakening of the 1740s and after. Their unorthodox beliefs—especially the banning of infant baptism—made them unwelcome to religious establishments in New England and the South. Woodcut illustration by Joseph Crukshank and Isaac Collins, 1770 Courtesy of Historical Society of Pennsylvania Conflict Over the BackcountryConflicts of interest led rural Scots-Irish to mount an armed march toward Philadelphia in 1764. Farming on contested lands, many resented Quaker refusal to raise a military against Native peoples. Here, Native Americans and Quakers ride on the backs of suffering Scots-Irish and German immigrants.
Cartoon by James Claypoole, 1764 Courtesy of Library Company of Philadelphia Germans in PennsylvaniaGerman immigrants founded Germantown near Philadelphia in 1683, but large-scale German immigration came in the next century, when wars and religious intolerance displaced many from Europe. Separatist sects found acceptance in the colony, including Moravians, Mennonites, and Amish. Germans became the largest non-English group in colonial Pennsylvania. They established German-language newspapers and schools and only gradually became engaged with political affairs of the colony. Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin expressed an ambivalent view of these immigrants. He admired their industry but worried that they introduced an “alien” element to the colony. Pennsylvania StatehousePhiladelphia’s impressive public building housed the colonial legislature and courts. Quakers dominated the Pennsylvania government even after immigrant Germans and Scots-Irish outnumbered them in the 1750s. The Quakers lost power with the American Revolution, when the Pennsylvania statehouse would become known as Independence Hall. “A Map of Philadelphia and Parts Adjacent with a Perspective View of the State House,” by N. Scull and G. Heap, 1752 Courtesy of Library of Congress Ethnic DiversityThis stove plate from 1748 shows some of the distinctive German decorative elements that would persist in Pennsylvania. The inscription comes from Luther’s version of Psalms 65:10, “God’s well has water in plenty.” The initials on it may identify maker and place of manufacture. Why did Quakers move to Pennsylvania?This new sect called themselves the Society of Friends, or Quakers, whose faith and practices were so radical that persecution fell upon them. Ultimately, this persecution and their desire for spiritual freedom led them to flee England and establish a religious haven in Pennsylvania.
Where and why did the Quakers settle?Many Quakers settled in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, due to its policy of religious freedom, as well as the British colony of Pennsylvania which was formed by William Penn in 1681 as a haven for persecuted Quakers.
Where in Pennsylvania did the Quakers settle?Many Quakers were Irish and Welsh, and they settled in the area immediately outside of Philadelphia. French Huguenot and Jewish settlers, together with Dutch, Swedes, and other groups, contributed in smaller numbers to the development of colonial Pennsylvania.
Why did they settle in Pennsylvania?Penn wanted to create a haven for his persecuted friends in the New World and asked the King to grant him land in the territory between the province of Maryland and the province of New York. On March 4, 1681, King Charles signed the Charter of Pennsylvania, and it was officially proclaimed on April 2.
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