A Brief History of the United StatesSteele, Joel Dorman
History
A Brief History of the United States
Steele, Joel Dorman
United States -- History
[Footnote: The Quakers, avoiding unmeaning forms, aim to lead
purely spiritual lives. Their usual worship is conducted in solemn
silence, each soul for itself. They take no oath, make no
compliments, remove not the hat to king or ruler, and "thee" and
"thou" both friend and foe. Every day is to them a holy day, and
the Sabbath simply a day of rest. We can readily see how this must
have scandalized the Puritans. William Penn became a Quaker while
in college at Oxford. Refusing to wear the customary student's
surplice, he with others violently assaulted some fellow-students
and stripped them of their robes. For this he was expelled. His
father would not allow him to return home. Afterward relenting, he
sent him to Paris, Cork, and other cities, to soften his Quaker
peculiarities. After several unhappy quarrels, his father proposed
to overlook all else if he would only consent to doff his hat to
the king, the Duke of York, and himself. Penn still refusing, he
was again turned out of doors. He was several times imprisoned for
his religious extremes. On the death of his father, to whom he had
once more been reconciled, he became heir to quite a fortune. He
took the territory which forms Pennsylvania in payment of a debt of
16,000 pounds due his father from the crown.]
This tract Penn named Sylvania, but the king insisted upon calling
it Pennsylvania
[Footenote: Penn offered the secretary who drew up the charter
twenty guineas to leave off the prefix "Penn" This request being
denied, the king was appealed to, who commanded the tract to be
called Pennsylvania] (Penn's woods) in honor of William Penn's
father.
The Duke of York added to this grant the present State of Delaware,
which soon came to be termed the "Three lower counties on the
Delaware." Penn wished to form a refuge for his Quaker brethren,
who were bitterly persecuted in England. He at once sent over large
numbers, as many as two thousand in a single year. The next year he
came himself, and was received by the settlers with the greatest
cordiality and respect.
PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED.--The year following (1683) Penn purchased
land of the Swedes and laid out a city which he named Philadelphia,
signifying _brotherly love_. It was in the midst of the forest, and
the startled deer bounded past the settler who came to survey his new
home. Yet within a year it contained one hundred houses; in two years
numbered over two thousand inhabitants; and in three years gained more
than New York had in half a century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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