 The Dutch settle New Netherland; English
Quakers led by William Penn settle Pennsylvania.
 The principles of tolerance and equality
promoted in the Quaker settlement remain
fundamental values in America.
 William Penn
 New Netherland
 Proprietor
 Quakers
ONE AMERICAN’S STORY
“For matters of liberty and privilege, I propose that which is
extraordinary, and [I intend] to leave myself and successors no
power for doing mischief, [in order] that the will of one man may
not hinder the good of a whole country; but to publish those
things now and here, as matters stand, would not be wise. . . . ”
—William Penn - quoted in A New World
How did William Penn’s father enable him to
establish the colony of Pennsylvania?
Why did Penn want to establish a colonial
government run on Quaker principles?
How was Penn’s colonial government different than
Jamestown & Massachusetts Bay Colony?
 Diverse Colony
 1609 Dutch settled along Hudson river
 Established fur trade and trading post in present day
Albany.
 1621: Dutch gov’t gave permission to Dutch West India
Company to colonize ‘New Netherlands’ & expand fur
trade.
 included NY & NJ
 New Amsterdam (NYC) was capital
 Dutch West India Company encouraged settlers
from Europe to settle in New Netherlands. Dutch,
Germans, Scandinavians, Africans (free &
enslaved), and made up colony.
 All religions welcomed: Protestants, Catholics,
Jews, Muslims
 Known as ‘Great Confusion of Tongues’ bc of
diverse population.
 Dutch & Native Americans traded and got along
well.
 England thought it was a ‘Dutch Wedge’ btwn New
England & Mid-Atlantic colonies.
 Duke of York (James II) ordered by King of
England (Charles II) to invade colony and drive
Dutch out.
 Most settlers refused to fight against British
 Stuyvesant (Dutch gov.) signed colony over to ‘Duke
of York’- who eventually became King James II.
 ‘Duke of York’ renamed colony New York
 gave friends lands west of Hudson
 Named New Jersey.
 King Charles II owed money to supporters in England.
(e.g. William Penn’s father was owed 16,000 pounds)
 Instead of money, King Charles II gave William Penn, a
Quaker, a large property in America and asked that
William name the colony after his father: Pennsylvania.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LewnnInReP8
What’s a Quaker?
Quakers: believed that God’s ‘inner light’
shined on everyone.
Services held without formal ministers
People could speak during service if
the ‘Holy Spirit’ moved them
 dressed in plain clothes
 Refused to defer to persons of ‘rank’
 opposed war & refused to serve in
British military

Persecuted in Britain for religious views.
Quakers
 Penn wanted a society based on Quaker ideals.
 Penn’s ‘Holy Experiment’ was to create a colony that
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had absolutely NO LANDOWNING ARISTOCRACY.
Every adult male received 50 acres of land when
coming to Pennsylvania
All men could vote
Government would be a ‘representative assembly’
Representative Assembly supported ‘religious
freedom’.
Capital of Pennsylvania was called Philadelphia –
‘The City of Brotherly Love’
 Penn believed - people approached in friendship
would respond in friendship.
 The Delaware Natives inhabited the land in the
Pennsylvania colony
 The Delaware received letter from Penn
 Penn highly respected the Delaware and that he would
purchase the land from them.
 Penn regulated trade between Natives and settlers to
ensure trade was fair & honest.
 Penn provided a court made up of colonists & Natives
to settle differences
 Relationship between settlers & Native Americans was
peaceful for 50 years.
 Penn needed to attract settlers to ensure the colony
would thrive.
 (farmers, builders, traders)
 Advertised throughout Western Europe.
 Signs in German, French, & Dutch printed in
newspapers.
 Settlers came in high numbers
 thousands of Germans
 Had craft skills, and farming techniques Penn would never
profit from his colony and died in poverty.
 Quakers in Pennsylvania were outnumbered and
slavery was eventually brought to the colony.
 Penn’s principles of equality, cooperation, and
religious tolerance would eventually become the
fundamental values of the new American nation.
Colony
Founded
Economic Activity
Massachusetts
Plymouth 1620 / Mass. Bay 1630
New Hampshire
1623
Shipbuilding, shipping, fishing, lumber, rum,
meat products
Ship masts, lumber, fishing, trade
Connecticut
1636
Shipping, livestock, foodstuffs
Rhode Island
1636
Rum, iron foundries, shipbuilding, snuff,
livestock
New York
1625
Furs, wheat, glass, shoes, livestock, shipping, shipbuilding,
rum, beer, snuff
Delaware
1638
Trade, foodstuffs
New Jersey
1664
Trade, foodstuffs, copper
Pennsylvania
1681
Flour, foodstuffs, paper, iron, wheat, flax,
shipbuilding
Virginia
1607
Tobacco, wheat, cattle, iron
Maryland
1632
Tobacco, wheat, snuff
North Carolina
1663
Naval supplies, tobacco, furs
South Carolina
1663
Rice, indigo, silk
Georgia
1732
Indigo, rice, naval supplies, lumber