In 1681, Pennsylvania was founded to address
the religious persecution problem. WilliamPenn
thought that people of all nations and religions,
along with the Native American tribes, could live
together peacefully in his colony. The ideas set forth
by Penn allowed the colony of Pennsylvania to
become a
haven
for themany persecuted religious
and
ethnic
groups in Europe. That is what William
Pennmeant by his phrase the
Holy Experiment.
Ethnic and Religious Groups
Move to the Pennsylvania Colony
People fromdifferent religious and ethnic groups
began to emigrate from their homelands to the
Pennsylvania colony. Once a settler hasmoved to a new
place, he or she is known as an
immigrant
. In the late
1600s and early 1700s, several Protestant groups
came from
England
,
Germany
, and
Switzerland
. Most of
the early settlers were farmers. They had heard of
religious freedomand of land for cheap prices. The
following paragraphs present themajor religious and
ethnic groups that settled in early colonial Pennsylvania.
The Quakers
BecauseWilliamPenn was a Quaker, many of the
earliest immigrants to Pennsylvania were Quakers.
They believe in a simple, peaceful lifestyle. It was and
is their belief that the purpose for life is to worship
God through spiritual friends and fellowship. They did
not believe in war but did care for the sick and
wounded during the American Revolutionary War for
independence fromEngland. They started our colony’s
first school. They also started our colony’s first jail.
They believed a person should be trained in a useful
trade or craft while in jail. This belief is still held for
prisoners in today’s jails. Today, the Quaker religion
exists inmany countries.
The Germans
The German religious groups that moved to
Pennsylvania weremostly Protestants and believed
in a simple, peaceful lifestyle. Mainly farmers, they
worshiped their formof religion and respected all
other forms of religion. They did not believe in
war and fighting and were friendly toward the
Native Americans.
The best known of the German religious groups
were the Pennsylvania Dutch. Because the German
word for German was Deutsche, the English settlers
mistakenly called themDutch. These Pennsylvania
Dutch weremade up of theMennonites and Amish.
Sometimes known as the “plain people” or the
“simple people,” nearly one half of the colony’s
population consisted of Pennsylvania Dutch by 1750.
Two other German groups were theMoravians
and the Church of the Brethren. TheMoravians
settled near what is known as Bethlehem today. The
Church of the Brethren religious group is still very
active today.
The Seventh Day Baptists settled near what is
present day Lancaster. They, like the other German
religious groups, did not believe in war.
The Arch StreetMeetingHouse was built in 1804 at 4th andArch Streets in Philadelphia. It
is the oldest FriendsMeetingHouse still in use in the city, and also is the largest in the world.
Pennsylvania Becomes A Religious and Cultural Haven
35
