When America was newly discovered it was seen as a land of opportunity and new beginnings. Naturally, people started to colonize along the upper east coast and started their new lives. However, not all people had the same experience as they thought they would when early settlers first arrived. The early settlement was challenging and just what helped form our nation as we know it today. Many groups of people had a different experience while adjusting in the colonial era. In 1725, John Jones writes to one of his relatives about his father’s arrival in America and the difficulty settling in early Pennsylvania. John’s father was originally from Wales and enjoyed a simple and charming life. However, in just three weeks’ time his father hears about …show more content…
The journey was treacherous and lasted weeks until he saw a river along the east coast of what is now modern Delaware. After thirty weeks from the time they left London to America, Penn was able to successfully end his voyage on April 16th. He traveled one hundred and twenty miles up the river to present Philadelphia. As soon as Penn arrived there was no one to greet him nor anywhere to properly settle. Penn went by himself to find means of subsistence. As he longed for land, people, and even just something to drink, he meets a drunken old man who did not understand Penn’s English/Welsh tongue. Even while this unknown man seemed skittish, he still invited Penn to his dwelling, where Penn received the most gracious hospitality from his whole family. Penn learned that family was Swede, and made this place his home until he had habitation of his own. During the summer of 1682, William Penn was a Governor and began to divide the country into allotments and to plan the city of Philadelphia which was at the time only two miles in length. He set out houses and streets with portions of land assigned to certain houses. Later in the year, there was a type of neighborhood in Pennsylvania. People there were sometimes employed in making homes or farming, benefitting others in
The New England and the Southern colonial settlements were united in several areas that created the opportunity for each group of colonies to grow. However, these groups of colonies took divergent paths when it came to the founders’ motives to settle the New World, the importance of religious and social orientation, economic approaches and political developments. These different approaches were ultimately successful beyond the early founders’ expectations.
The settler’s purpose for coming to America and the obstacles faced in both nature and with the natives caused the New England and Chesapeake regions to develop different societies. The problems that the regions faced were both similar and devastating, yet they had different effects on the regions. They way in which the problems were handled as well as the extremity played a large role in this and helped in the regions obtaining different societies. Despite the fact that the settlers originated from the same area in Europe, they created different societies in their New World homes.
The colonists of the eighteenth century were caught between two cultures: the culture of their mother country (England), and a developing culture that would soon be labeled “American.” During the eighteenth century, the population of the Britain’s mainland colonies grew at unprecedented rates. However, few Americans chose to live in the cities. Despite the limited urban population, cities still profoundly influenced colonial culture. In cities, Americans were exposed to the latest English ideas. Wealthy colonists began to emulate the culture of the mother country, and women and men
To the south of New England were the middle colonies. There the soil was fertile, and the weather more acclimated to farming (Sarcelle, 1965). Rivers flowed west toward the frontier, enabling transportation. The middle colonies, as opposed to the relatively Puritan dominated New England, were very diverse in people. A mixture of Dutch, German, Swedes, English and other smaller groups were present in middle colonial cities such as New York (Higginbotham, 1996).
William Penn was born in England and belonged to a wealthy family “possessed of wealth and status, which gave him almost immediate access to the halls of power in Restoration, England” (Moretta xii). I personally believe that the importance of status and wealth must have played a gigantic role in Penn’s life and his career. He lived a simple life and wanted the good of others, but knowing the status of your family would’ve generated something in his mind. He was a social individual and was liked by his peers until he was caught attending a Quakers meeting and arrested. His father left him homeless at the age of twenty-two and he started residing with the Quakers. He had to struggle in his early twenties but as they say; “with no struggle there is no inspiration.” He knew the consequences of attending the meetings but the interest kept him going. I believe this is when Penn realized the important things in his life and started to prioritize things that meant something to him.
"POSTSCRIPT to the Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 2075. BOSTON, September 15." Town Meeting. Boston: The Pennsylvania Gazette, September 1768.
When the colonist first came, they were mainly individual colonies with much diversity. The Great Awakening played a major role in the colonies uniting and seeing themselves as the Americans people.
Although there were opportunities in Colonial Pennsylvania, it seemed to favor the wealthy.The notion of moving to
Tolles, F.B. (1957). The Culture of Early Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 81(2), 119-137.
In his article “The Mythology of Hope and Change”, Ira Chernus attempts to explain Americans worldview -one with a built in contradiction. This is based upon the Settlers belief that in coming to the New World, out of a desire to be religiously and personally free; they see themselves like a New Israeli, blessed by God. They are people that risked their lives for the ability to create a new country, a new community, out of the wilderness that surrounded them. Americans from the very beginning, have embraced change as a necessity for improving their lives. An example that Chernus provides is the fact of the settlers going westward from their homeland from europe; to escape the strong grip of the government and church had it’s people. But at
John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, 1767, 1768, in Skemp, Benjamin and William Franklin, 160.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, had changed drastically. It was considered to be one of the greatest cities in the world, with Quaker grammar schools open to all citizens. Though he did not promote abolition, slaves in Pennsylvania were required to be well treated. After many advances in culture and religion, Penn died with no money to his name in Ruscombe, England. His wife remained the proprietor of the colony after his death.
When the first English came, Phillip’s father was a great man, and the English as a little child; he prevent other Indians from wronging them, gave them corn and showed them how to plant it…(Hubbard 275).
The Quakers, also known as the Society of Friends was religious group that founded Pennsylvania. William Penn, one of the leaders, worked with the Quakers, Indians and the other population to make an ideal world for him, his followers, and the other people in his environment. With his efforts, and the help of others, the Quakers left a huge impact on Pennsylvania and the entire nation.
I have analyzed the “The Air is Sweet and Clear, the Heavens Serene, like the South Parts of France”: William Penn Advertises for Colonists for Pennsylvania, 1683; by William Penn. This article demonstrates and reveals his observations and feelings about the new land. He expresses his feelings on how plentiful the land is. He describes in detail what he sees. His ideas and wants for the land. Penn takes a debt and turns it into good. He wants to lay down the griefs from the past to create a land that is full of life and growth. He shares his findings so that it will bring people to Pennsylvania. Penn wanted to let others know he was accepting and made an alliance with the natives. He explained that it didn’t matter your religion; you would