Worksheet # 26          Home Questions Puzzle Links Next

WILLIAM PENN’S HOLY EXPERIMENT

Now as the New World toddled in her infancy,

More dreams brought their dreamers from across the sea.

A fresh start for the daring, a new hope, a clean slate,

With opportunity knocking -- ‘twas no time to wait!

So a wealthy young Quaker, name of William Penn,

Sought for a home for his fellow women and men.

They were Protestants too, and did share in the grief

Of those persecuted for their religious belief.

Indeed, Quakers were a group most peaceful and fair,

But had troubles at home and were told to beware,

As they believed all to be equal in the eyes of God,

And gave both lordly and low the same friendly nod!

The English nobles were peeved and began to stew

That this upstart religion should give them no due!

But Young Penn had a friend in King Charles the Second,

Who owed him a favor, and so William reckoned:

A claim in America would make a fine place

For a Society of Friends to have plenty of space.

To live and to settle with a more tolerant bent,

Pennsylvania would be a “holy experiment.”

Which showed in the way Penn treated the tribes,

Giving them payment and peace and justice besides.

-- So strange how it works: natives responded in kind,

Letting his settlement prosper without a hard time!

And the ports of Philadelphia soon grew by bounds

With Frenchmen and Scots and many others around.

Like the Germans who came with a bevy of skills,

Such as clock and gun-making to help pay the bills.

(Though of German descent, there is confusion much:

For some reason they’re called the Pennsylvania Dutch.)

And these folks of all races, of all creeds and stripes,

In Penn’s Woods were welcome with no ranking of types.