March 4 - Holy Experiment Day

nPosted on March 4, 2020

Key Points

Penn at age 22

nThere was this English man named William Penn. He was lucky enough to be born into a rich and important family; his father was Sir William Penn, an admiral, and his mother was a Dutch woman with money and family connections.

nDespite being a member of a high-prestige group – white, English, male, rich – Penn joined a religious group that was against the law of the land and was looked down on by most. He became a Quaker (Quakers are also called “Friends”) and was even arrested for attending Quaker meetings. Rather than dodging the charges by ditching the label “Quaker,” Penn proudly claimed the label. His family was important enough that he was released from prison.

nBUT Penn’s father was outraged that his son had turned away from the Church of England and worried that he would soon be in trouble with the King. Admiral Penn pleaded with his son to renounce the Society of Friends, to be reasonable and practical…but Penn, Jr., stood his ground.

nAdmiral Penn ordered his son out of the house and cut him off from family monies.

nYikes!

nStill, William Penn (Jr.) stayed a Quaker. He began to live with various other Friends, and he began to write about the Quaker religion.

William Penn wore plain
clothing.

nHere are some of the things Quakers were known for:

refusing to participate in war

wearing plain clothing

opposition to slavery

not drinking alcohol

not treating the insane as criminals who need to be locked up

human rights for those who don’t own property

not believing in the necessity of a hierarchy (some people being ranked “above” or over others)

Charles II (sitting) and Penn

nOn this date in 1681, King Charles II surprised Penn by giving him a charter for a huge chunk of land in North America: more than 45,000 square miles (120,000 square km)! Charles II even named the land Pennsylvania – in honor of Admiral Penn, not Penn, Jr., but still!

n(“Sylvania” is Latin for “forests” or “woods.”)

nWilliam Penn traveled to the New World, to Pennsylvania, and wrote a charter of liberties for the new settlement. He intended to set up a political utopia (perfect place), and he guaranteed free and fairy trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment, free elections.

nAll of that seems so normal to us now – but a lot of that was unusual at the time. Since Penn was basically the owner and ruler of Pennsylvania, he could have ruled in a way that guaranteed his own continuing power, but he deliberately set up limits to his own power. He established two groups of lawmakers, and he safeguarded the rights of private property, and he even set up prisons as places of working on oneself – they were considered “workshops” – rather than places of punishment and misery. Penn knew that English law punished roughly 200 different crimes with a death sentence, but he considered that a problem; in Pennsylvania, only treason or murder would result in a death sentence.

nPenn was influenced by the ideas of philosopher John Locke, but he also made up the idea of using amendments to change a written constitution so that government could change and evolve with changing times.

Penn even treated the people native to “his” land decently (compared to other European settlers). He purchased land from the Lenape, and he made sure that the Lenape still had the right to travel across the land for the purpose of hunting, fishing, and gathering.

nPenn considered the Pennsylvania colony, with all of his structure meant to establish democracy and human rights, a “Holy Experiment.” Having a lot of religious diversity (not only did Penn recruit Quakers, he recruited other people being persecuted for their “misfit” religions!), and having religious freedom, certain were pretty darned experimental – and the experiment succeeded! This was an experiment that greatly influenced the eventual United States of America!