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Title page, German language version of William Penn's "Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America," 1681.
Credit: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
To attract settlers to his new colony, William Penn published a series of promotional tracts that advertised his new colony's attractions and advantages and traveled widely through the German states. The first tract, released in English and German, Penn published before his first visit to Pennsylvania. Iron, Penn noted, was one of the commodities that the new country was capable of producing.