WILLIAM PENN
Governor of Pennsylvania
William
Penn was born in London in 1644. He grew up there and in Ireland with all the privileges
of the eldest son of Admiral Sir William Penn, who had captured Jamaica from the Dutch
in 1655. Though very worldly as a youth, he became a Quaker in 1666 while a student at
Oxford—very much to his father’s disapproval. In 1668 Penn was arrested for
writing a tract attacking the doctrines of the Church of England. While in prison in 1669
he wrote the devotional classic No Cross, No Crown.
In spite of his father’s disappointment in him, the admiral was finally able to
arrange for William’s release from prison.
After
his father died in 1670, William began to feel that Quakers had no future in England and
traveled to America in 1677 and 1678, looking for a safe haven. Then in 1681, as a
settlement for a large debt owed to his father, William received “Pennsylvania”
from King Charles II. Largely at his own expense, he financed a new colony as a home for
Quakers and any other persecuted people. There, Penn began his “Holy Experiment”
of equal opportunity (he arranged for even poor people to earn a new home), religious
tolerance, and fair and just treatment of the Indians. While massacres were commonplace in
all the other American colonies, no white person was killed by an Indian during Penn’s
administration. His treaties with the Indians were the only ones never broken. Though the
King had given Pennsylvania to him, Penn recognized the Indians as its rightful owners,
and white people settled on it only with the permission of the Indians and after
purchasing land from them. As a result, the Indians loved and honored Penn.
However,
he himself experienced serious personal difficulties during the rest of his life. He was
able to remain in his colony for only two brief periods (1682-1684, 1699-1701). He was
twice accused of treason and lost control of Pennsylvania from 1692 to 1694 because of his
friendship with the deposed English king, James II. His wife, Gulielma, died in 1694,
and his eldest son, possibly spoiled by his father’s lack of adequate discipline,
became a disappointing rascal. Penn’s financial reverses even landed him in debtors’
prison briefly. When in 1699 he finally returned to Pennsylvania with his
twenty-one-year-old daughter, Latitia, and his new wife, Hannah, he faced complications
stemming from the extraordinarily tolerant policies on which he had founded his “Holy
Experiment.” Selfish-minded people were taking advantage of his relatively weak
central government and generous policies.
To
his dismay, he discovered that he “owned” three African slaves to work his
gardens at Pennsbury Manor (an estate manager ran his estate in his absence). He freed
those slaves and did his best to get the government to end the slave trade and pass a law
freeing all slaves after fourteen years of service, but the Assembly threw out his
initiatives. The prevailing libertarian philosophy justified people doing as they pleased.
(It was not until 1780 that the Society of Friends as a whole took a stand against slave
holding.)
Pirates
had also found Delaware Bay a haven for their operations. One explanation blamed Penn’s
own Quakers. Uncomfortable with using force to defend themselves, they were accused of
accommodating the pirates and even profiting by trading with them. In some instances this
represented a “live and let live” attitude gone to seed.
In
this environment rival factions flourished in the colony, making it difficult to agree,
govern, or enforce laws or regulations.
Crippled by a stroke in 1712, Penn died in Buckinghamshire, England, on July 30, 1718.
© 2000 Dave and Neta Jackson