Religion In Colonial Philadelphia

The Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony was primarily focused around church and faith. In 1630, a mass exodus of Puritans moved from England to the colonies in an attempt to isolate themselves and focus on their own religion. Puritans believed that they had a covenant with God, meaning they were predestined for heaven.

The Quakers were first founded in the mid-1600s in England and were formerly known as The Religious Society of Friends. They were a very simple and devoted democratic group of people. When they arrived in America, they began to try to settle in Massachusetts. Massachusetts was also where the Puritan colonists had been settling and because they (the Quakers) threatened the Puritan’s beliefs in America they gave them and other opposing religions, such as the Baptists, harsh punishments for inhabiting their land which included hanging, fines, whipping, and banishing the people from Massachusetts. The Quakers later moved their efforts to the new land of Pennsylvania. They established their land on “the equality of all persons (including women, blacks, and Indians) before God.” They proved this stance of equality by being the “first group of whites to repudiate slavery” of Africans. They also purchased their found land from the Indians that owned it. These actions show that the Quakers truly lived in equality. “Religious freedom was Penn’s most fundamental principle.” The Quakers never gave an established church for Pennsylvania and allowed almost all religious freedom in its land. Although the Quakers were lenient on race, gender, and religious preference they did have a “strict code of personal morality.” They “prohibited swearing, drunkenness, and adultery” among many other activities that they thought were immoral. Many of their beliefs spread throughout America and has

Compare the ways in which religion shaped the development of colonial society (to 1740) in TWO of the following regions: New England

Penn had hoped that Pennsylvania would be a profitable venture for himself and his family. Penn marketed the colony throughout Europe in various languages and, as a result, settlers flocked to Pennsylvania. Despite Pennsylvania's rapid growth and diversity, the colony never turned a profit for Penn or his family. In fact, Penn would later be imprisoned in England for debt and, at the time of his death in 1718, he was penniless. From 1682 to 1684 Penn was, himself, in the Province of Pennsylvania. After the building plans for Philadelphia had been completed, and Penn's political ideas had been put into a workable form, Penn explored the interior. He befriended the local Indians, and ensured that they were paid fairly for their lands. Penn even learned several different Indian dialects in order to communicate in negotiations without interpreters. The freedom of religion in Pennsylvania brought not only freedom to English, Welsh, German and Dutch Quakers to the colony, but also Huguenots, Mennonites, Amish, and Lutherans from Catholic German states. In 1677, a group of prominent Quakers, among them Penn, received the colonial province of West New Jersey. That same year, two hundred settlers from the towns of Chorleywood and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire and other towns in nearby Buckinghamshire arrived, and founded the town of Burlington. Penn, who was involved in the project but himself remained in England, drafted a

After establishing the last English colony during the seventeenth century, William Penn sought ways to create a safe haven for those who suffer from religious persecution in Europe. Additionally, William Penn also pictured a place of equality in which colonists and Indians can live in harmony while enjoying their religious freedom. William Penn might have considered his colony in Pennsylvania as his “holy experiment” because he wanted to try something different and test out new things within his colony such as establishing a place where there is religious freedom and equality. Furthermore, William Penn was an active member of the Society of Friends, Quakers, and his participation with the group helped him develop the concept of his “holy experiment” along with helping those who faced religious persecution.

The original Pennsylvania colony was founded in 1682 by William Penn, when the king owed Penn’s father a large deal of money so he gave him land in the New World. Penn used the land to create a new colony so that people who belonged to one of the many religions that were being heavily persecuted at the time would have a place to go. Most of the people of the people that came to Pennsylvania were Quakers that had nowhere else to go. Though the colony did have religious freedom, it was lead by and the majority of the rules were set by Quakers. It was a very strictly run colony, as the Quakers were very intolerant of immorality, so activities like drinking, gambling, and lying were banned, to the point that owning cards or dice was illegal. While

Represented religion of England in North America. 18. William Penn - Sig.:1. Established a colony to be open-minded to all religions. 2.

Penn is a great man who affects the city of Philadelphia in many aspects. First, he bought three major land which consists the main body of Philadelphia, the waterfront and south county. And buildings were built along the Delaware river. It was also he advertise Philadelphia to European and attract more population move there. He also determined the basic layout of the city, the “gird” (Philadelphia History Channel, n.d.) Such a brand-new design was a great attempt in the new world of America while the capital city of his motherland, London had been overcrowded and caught on fire in 1666, the Great Fire of London. This design become the most influential planning pattern in the American colonies and affected many other cities’ design in the world.

An English Quaker lawyer name William Penn was the founder of Pennsylvania City. He called it the place for religious freedom in America. One of his quotes states, “True religion does not draw men out of the world but enable them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.” William Penn was educated in theology and law and in his early twenties. William was converted to the Quaker religion, and he was jail many times for counterattacking the Church of England. The royal charter of England granted William stay in America to form a new colony in America. Pennsylvania was where individuals of all religious beliefs would be free to practice their religions. It is ironic to say I was in a city founded by William Penn practicing

The public life of a citizen in an early American community varied greatly with the customs and culture of each society. The two largest factors that determined what was socially acceptable for citizens during that time were religion and politics. Often religion would shape how the community viewed politics and likewise politics would affect religion. However, it appears that before the American Revolution religion dictated politics and the subsequent laws that were written, while after the war citizens began to have political aspirations that would change how society viewed religion. Thus, marking a very clear shift where religion stopped being the primary influence on public life and politics began to take over that role.

Nearly a century before the original 13 colonies were declared as independent, William Penn initiated the colony Pennsylvania that bore its own independence based on individual and religious freedom. He is recognized as one of the seventeenth century 's most devoted advocates of liberty of conscience. Although establishing a form of government that promoted freedom of religion and also the use of religion to enhance citizenship, J. William frost argued, Penn effectively created a “non-coercive Quaker establishment.” 1 These laws clearly favored and protected Quaker

In 1816, Richard Allen founded the first African-American led church in the country, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first major religious denomination in the western world that originated because of sociological and not theological differences. It was the first African-American denomination organized and incorporated in the US. The church was established in what was known as the Blacksmith Shop Meeting House. “By 1786 blacks made up about 10 percent of the Methodist church in the United States, and though whites and blacks often worshiped together, blacks enjoyed no real freedom or equality. Segregated seating was typical; the area reserved for blacks was usually called the “Negro Pew” or the “African Corner.”

I found that the religious views throughout the early thirteen colonies were most appealing to me. During the 1770s, many Americans living in these colonies were either Protestant or of no religion at all. As years passed and more people started to move into the colonies, some of the colonies saw more religious views starting to grow. Two of the main religions introduced to the colonies were Judaism and Roman Catholic. Jewish synagogues were built and Roman Catholics started to form churches with priests, which helped people to learn more about these new and growing religions. John Calvin introduced Christianity in these churches, leading almost 80% of Americans to Christianity. There were many religions introduced all through the colonies,

In 1681, King Charles 2 granted William Penn, a Quaker, a charter for the area that was to become Pennsylvania. Penn guaranteed the settlers of his colony freedom of religion. He advertised the policy across Europe so that Quakers and other religious dissidents would know that they could live there safely.

In England, the Quakers beliefs were thought of as dangerous and devilish. Their beliefs were to different from England’s version of orthodox Christianity so England started persecuting the group. After 10,000 Quakers had been thrown in to jail and 243 had died from the torture in the jails, they came to America to find refuge. From 1681 to 1685 over 8,000 Quakers had come to the New World and settled in Pennsylvania.