The Vision of William Penn

More than three hundred years ago, William Penn established a colony based upon his vision of religious tolerance, participatory government, and brotherly love. Penn's unique vision helped shape Pennsylvania and American history, and it continues to affect our lives today.

Bring this subject into focus through the following chapters. These stories take exploration of the main story further by providing more detail for you to learn and explore.

Overview: The Vision of William Penn
Chapter One: Europeans Before Penn
Chapter Two: Penn's Arrival
Chapter Three: Indian Relations
Chapter Four: Legacy of Toleration and Reform

	First Protest Against Slavery (Philadelphia)		American Friends Service Committee (Philadelphia)
	Bucks County (Bucks)		Carlisle Indian Industrial School (Cumberland)
	Carlisle Indian Industrial School [Vision of Penn] (Cumberland)		Chester County (Chester)
	Civilian Public Service (Philadelphia)		Conestoga Indian Town (Lancaster)
	Conrad Weiser (Berks)		Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia)
	Essex House (Delaware)		Finland (Delaware)
	Governor Printz Park (Delaware)		Hannah Callowhill Penn (Philadelphia)
	London Coffee House (Philadelphia)		Lower Swedish Cabin (Delaware)
	Mason-Dixon Line (York)		Moses Tunda Tatamy (Northampton)
	New Sweden (Delaware)		Penn Landing (Delaware)
	Penn Treaty Park (Philadelphia)		Pennsbury (Bucks)
	Pennsylvania Abolition Society (Philadelphia)		Shikellamy (Northumberland)
	The Aaronsburg Story (Centre)		Thomas Holme (Philadelphia)
	Tinicum (Delaware)		Walking Purchase (1) (Bucks)
	Walking Purchase (2) (Bucks)

Take your students back in history with these discussions and activities for the classroom

• Betrayal of Penn's Promise - The Walking Purchase
• Creating a Government of the People
• Religious Tolerance in Pennsylvania

• Publication Guide
• Web Guide

Queen Christiana, Land Deed to Captain Hans Ammundson Besk, 1653.

Charter of King Charles II to William Penn, March 4, 1681, iron gall ink on parchment.

Charter of King Charles II to William Penn, March 4, 1681.

William Penn, Excerpts from his "Frame of Government," 1682.

First Frame of Government, April 25, 1682, iron gall ink on parchment.

William Penn, Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, February 2, 1683

Land Grant with Receipt from Tamanen to William Penn, June 23, 1683.

William Penn's Prayer for Philadelphia, 1684.

First Protest Against Slavery, Germantown, PA, 1688.

Letters Patent from King William and Queen Mary Restoring Wm. Penn...Proprietor of Penssilvania, to the Government of the Said Province, August 20, 1694.

William Penn, Charter of Privileges, October 21, 1701.

The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776

Pennsylvania's 1780 Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

"The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of The State of Pennsylvania to their Constituents," 1788.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School student Maggie writes home to her father, 1881.

Bayard Rustin, "The Negro and Nonviolence," 1942

Bayard, Rustin, "Letter to the Draft Board," 1943

1609 Henry Hudson first explores the Delaware Bay and River

1638 Swedish establish first trading post on the Delaware River

1640 Dutch establish trading post at Fort Nassau

1644 Birth of William Penn

1652 George Fox starts Quaker Faith in England

1655 Dutch troops seize Fort Christina and took control of New Sweden

1681 King Charles II grants William Penn 45,000 square-mile colony in the New World to pay off debt to Penn's father.

1682 Penn's arrival in Pennsylvania

1682 Thomas Holme lays out plan for City of Philadelphia

1683 Meeting of the first colonial Assembly in Philadelphia

1688 Mennonites in Germantown issue first protest against the African slave trade

1689 Penn establishes first Quaker school in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Quaker Meeting hires George Keith as schoolmaster to supervise local instruction

1700 Penn and his second wife, Hannah, move to Pennsbury Manor

1701 Penn meets with the Native people of Pennsylvania at Conestoga Indian Town on the Susquehanna River

1701 Penn issues the Charter of Privileges, the most liberal constitution of Britain's North American colonies

1712 William Penn suffers a stroke. His wife, Hannah, becomes acting proprietor until her death in 1726

1718 Death of William Penn

1728 Oneida Chief Shikellamy moves to the West Branch of the Susquehanna to serve as Iroquois's cultural emissary to Pennsylvania

1754 Outbreak of the French and Indian War

1763 End of the French and Indian War

1763 Men from Paxton massacre peaceful Iroquois and other Indians at Conestoga Indian Town

1787 Organization of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons

1829 Opening of the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia

1879 Opening of the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, PA

1917 The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) organizes the American Friends Service Committee to provide alternative service for conscientious objectors to war

1947 The American Friends Service Committee wins a Nobel Peace Prize for its relief work in post-war Europe

1949 40,000 gather at Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania to celebrate the principles of religious toleration and freedom of conscience personified by the actions of Aaron Levy in the late 1700s