William Penn and the Quakers
William Penn and the QuakersIntroduction
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.
The Quakers are a religion that originated in England in protest of the Anglican Church’s practices. The man in charge of this religious revolution was George Fox.1 He believed that God didn’t live in churches as much as he lived in
people’s hearts.2 In that state of mind, he went out into the world in search of his true religion. He argued with priests, slept in fields, and spent days and nights trying
to find followers. His first followers were mostly young people and women.
Besides freedom of religion, they wanted freedom of speech, worship and assembly,
refusal to go to war or take oath, and equality of the sexes and social classes.3
In England, between the years of 1650 and 1700, more than 15,000 Quakers
were fined and/or imprisoned; 366 were killed.4 The reason why the Quakers were
put through such torture was because their beliefs and culture was different from the
Anglican Church. At that time, any religion that was practiced in England other than
the Anglican Church would be persecuted. They believed that religion shouldn’t be
practiced in a church as much as in your heart. The differences that were between the
Quakers and the Anglican Christians was that the Anglicans practiced strict discipline
in their prayers. They would go to prayer every morning, and ask for forgiveness of
their sins. They believed that the sacred authority was the Bible, the only way to
make your way to heaven was to go to sermon; they should glorify God in the world;
and pay no attention to the irrationality of God. They didn’t believe men could
achieve anything for themselves; only God could do that. The Quakers, on the other
hand, believed that God should be in your spirit, not in sermon, and that your sacred
authority shouldn’t be a book, it should be your inner light, the force that drives you
through you life. They believed you shouldn’t be servants of God, but to be friends of
God. They believed violence was an unnecessary part of life, and things could be
worked out in other ways.5 The Quakers thought the authority of God was absolute,
but didn’t need to be preached at a formal meeting as much as the Anglican Church
believed that should happen.
In 1661, William Penn was introduced to Quakerism. He had been studying at
Christ Church in Oxford. He started to notice that he didn’t believe in some of the
things that he was studying in his religion. So, he started to go to Quaker meetings,
and believe in...
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