by Elizabeth Wordsmith

Created on: April 22, 2008   Last Updated: September 30, 2010

On March 4, 1681, King Charles II of Great Britain, gave his subject William Penn a charter for an American colony west of the Delaware River and north of Maryland. This area was to become Pennsylvania and its capitol would be Philadelphia.

King Charles II granted this land to Penn as repayment of a debt owed to Penn's deceased father Admiral Sir William Penn. But the king was also have been anxious to remove Quakers from the political fray of the times between the Church of England, the Catholics, and Protestants from many different denominations.

Penn himself had suffered religious persecution. He became interested in the philosophy of humanism, religious tolerance, and the Quaker faith when he was a young man of about seventeen. He was expelled from schools, imprisoned several times, disowned by his father, and removed of his possessions before the time this land was granted to him. Though he worked tirelessly to free Quakers from English prisons, there seemed no hope but to start anew in the American colonies.

He envisioned a place where there would be no religious persecution, where men and women of all backgrounds and stations could live equally and according to their individual conscience. So he named his city Philadelphia from the Greek words meaning brotherly love. Later the city was nicknamed the City of Brotherly Love and in the 1890's this was shortened to Philly.

Even before Penn left England for the colonies, immigrants from Europe and England heard the news of a colony that provided for religious freedom and was rich with economic opportunities. The city of Philadelphia grew rapidly and became a melting pot of citizens from all parts of Europe. Though started by Quakers, it became home to Jews, Catholics, and Protestants. People flocked to the city fleeing injustice, poverty, famine, and war.

Penn's dream succeeded. The frame for the first government of Pennsylvania provided for secure private property, unlimited free enterprise, a free press, religious toleration, and limitations of the death penalty to the crimes of murder and treason only. Later this frame would become the basis of the state's constitution and inspire the Constitution of the United States of America.

Though Philadelphia and Pennsylvania would continue to grow and thrive, Penn suffered more personal setbacks and tragedies in England. The Stuarts were overthrown and Penn was put in jail by the new rulers. His property was seized and he became a fugitive for four years. A friend, the famous John Locke, interceded on his behalf, so he could go home to see his dying wife. He did remarry, but he had invested and lost most of his wealth in his American dream project. One of his sons followed him in governing Pennsylvania, but, sadly did not share the same beliefs of his father.

During an historical time of religious shake down, upheaval, rebellion, bitterness, and persecution, the world's eyes watched Philadelphia to see if Penn's ideals could be made a reality. This melting pot of ideas and peoples miraculously worked. In later years, this place founded on the belief that men and women are equal and entitled to certain civil liberties including religious freedom, became known as the birthplace of America.

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