Penn's Sylvania: "A Holy Experiment"

Abstract

In 1681, King Charles II of England granted land in the New World to William Penn. The colony which Penn established, Pennsylvania, was a unique social experiment in religious liberty that lasted for seventy-five years. In order to understand Penn's experiment, and its impact, it is necessary to look at two factors. The first is Penn's convincement to Quakerism, in the face of societal and parental opposition.¹ The second is the unique friendship he enjoyed with the Stuart monarchs--his radical religious views notwithstanding. Penn's ideologies shaped the character of the colony which later became the center pf the fledgling government of the United States of America. Penn's "holy experiment", as he called it, became the proving ground for religious tolerance and individual liberty.