He used his inherited wealth and rank to benefit and protect his fellow believers. Despite the unpopularity of his religion, he was socially acceptable in the king's court because he was trusted by the Duke of York, later King James II. The origins of the Society of Friends lie in the intense religious ferment of seventeenth century England. George Fox, the son of a Leicestershire weaver, is credited with founding it in , though there was no definite organization before The Society's rejections of rituals and oaths, its opposition to war, and its simplicity of speech and dress soon attracted attention, usually hostile.
With the Duke's support, Penn's petition was granted. The King signed the Charter of Pennsylvania on March 4, , and it was officially proclaimed on April 2. The King named the new colony in honor of William Penn's father. It was to include the land between the 39th and 42nd degrees of north latitude and from the Delaware River westward for five degrees of longitude.
Other provisions assured its people the protection of English laws and, to a certain degree, kept it subject to the government in England. Provincial statutes could be annulled by the King. In the Duke of York deeded to Penn his claim to the three lower counties on the Delaware, which are now the state of Delaware. In April , Penn made his cousin William Markham deputy governor of the province and sent him to take control.
Penn's preface to First Frame of Government has become famous as a summation of his governmental ideals. Later, in October , the Proprietor arrived in Pennsylvania on the ship Welcome. He visited Philadelphia, just laid out as the capital city, created the three original counties, and summoned a General Assembly to Chester on December 4. This first Assembly united the Delaware counties with Pennsylvania, adopted a naturalization act and, on December 7, adopted the Great Law, a humanitarian code that became the fundamental basis of Pennsylvania law and which guaranteed liberty of conscience.
By the time of Penn's return to England late in , the foundations of the Quaker Province were well established. On May 8, , they were also granted honorary citizenship by Pennsylvania.
Although William Penn was granted all the land in Pennsylvania by the King, he and his heirs chose not to grant or settle any part of it without first buying the claims of the Native Americans who lived there. In this manner, all of present Pennsylvania except the northwestern third was purchased by The Commonwealth bought the Six Nations' claims to the remainder of the land in and , and the claims of the Delawares and Wyandots in The defeat of the French and Indian war alliance by , the withdrawal of the French, the crushing of Chief Pontiac's Indian alliance in , and the failure of all attempts by Native Americans and colonists to live side by side led the Native Americans to migrate westward, gradually leaving Pennsylvania.
Quakers were the dominant English element, although many English settlers were Anglican. The English settled heavily in the southeastern counties, which soon lost frontier characteristics and became the center of a thriving agricultural and commercial society. Philadelphia became the metropolis of the British colonies and a center of intellectual and commercial life. Thousands of Germans were also attracted to the colony and, by the time of the Revolution, comprised a third of the population.
The volume of German immigration increased after , coming largely from the Rhineland. The Pennsylvania Germans settled most heavily in the interior counties of Northampton, Berks, Lancaster, and Lehigh, and in neighboring areas. Their skill and industry transformed this region into a rich farming country, contributing greatly to the expanding prosperity of the province. Another important immigrant group was the Scotch-Irish, who migrated from about until the Revolution in a series of waves caused by hardships in Ireland.
They were primarily frontiersmen, pushing first into the Cumberland Valley region and then farther into central and western Pennsylvania.
They, with immigrants from old Scotland, numbered about one-fourth of the population by Despite Quaker opposition to slavery, about 4, slaves had been brought to Pennsylvania by , most of them owned by English, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish colonists. The census of showed that the number of African Americans had increased to about 10,, of whom about 6, had received their freedom. Many Quakers were Irish and Welsh, and they settled in the area immediately outside of Philadelphia.
French Huguenot and Jewish settlers, together with Dutch, Swedes, and other groups, contributed in smaller numbers to the development of colonial Pennsylvania. The mixture of various national groups in the Quaker Province helped to create its broadminded tolerance and cosmopolitan outlook.
Pennsylvania's political history ran a rocky course during the provincial era. There was a natural conflict between the proprietary and popular elements in the government which began under Penn and grew stronger under his successors. A popular party led by David Lloyd demanded greater powers for the Assembly, and in "Markham's Frame of Government" granted some of these. In December , the Proprietor again visited Pennsylvania and, just before his return to England in , agreed with the Assembly on a revised constitution, the "Charter of Privileges," which remained in effect until This guaranteed the Assembly full legislative powers and permitted the three Delaware counties to have a separate legislature.
It made Penn's earlier assurances of religious liberty absolute and irrevocable. However, except for the 44 months when William himself resided in Pennsylvania, government affairs were administered here by deputy or lieutenant governors termed "Governor" within Pennsylvania , who were chosen by the Proprietors and obedient to them.
The last two resident lieutenant governors, who were in office from until the Revolution, were grandsons of William Penn. In , the older grandson, John Penn the 2nd , became both a Proprietor and the resident executive in Pennsylvania, and he was styled "Governor and Commander in Chief.
William Penn's heirs, who eventually abandoned Quakerism, were often in conflict with the Assembly, which was usually dominated by the Quakers until One after another, governors defending the proprietors' prerogatives battered themselves against the rock of an Assembly vigilant in the defense of its own rights.
The people of the frontier areas contended with the people of the older, southeastern region for more adequate representation in the Assembly and better protection in time of war. The charter was issued in It granted the land from 12 miles North of Newcastle along the Delaware River until the 49th parallel.
The charter granted to Penn had more limitations than charters granted to earlier colonies. However, Penn remained unconcerned. As a Quaker he believed people were inherently good as opposed to the attitude of the Puritans.
Initially colonized by French fur traders, Ohio became a British colonial possession following the French and Indian War in At the end of the American Revolution, Britain ceded control of the territory to the newly formed United States, which incorporated it into the One of the original 13 colonies and one of the six New England states, Massachusetts officially called a commonwealth is known for being the landing place of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims.
English explorer and colonist John Smith named the state for the Massachuset tribe. Boston, the largest city in New England, is located on a hilly peninsula in Massachusetts Bay. The region had been inhabited since at least B. Captain John Smith in explored the One of the original 13 colonies, Maryland lies at the center of the Eastern Seaboard, amid the great commercial and population complex that stretches from Maine to Virginia.
Its small size belies the great diversity of its landscapes and ways of life that they foster, from the One of the original 13 colonies, New Jersey was an important battleground during the American Revolution. Located in the heart of the bustling Atlantic corridor and nestled between New York and Pennsylvania, New Jersey has the highest population density of any U.
The first native New Yorkers were the Lenape, an Algonquin people who hunted, fished and farmed in the area between the Delaware and Hudson rivers. Europeans began to explore the region at the beginning of the 16th century—among the first was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian
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