William Penn’s Holy Experiment: Quaker Truth in Pennsylvania by James Proud (review)

The founding of Pennsylvania as William Penn’s “holy experiment” in religious toleration and peaceful coexistence is regarded as one of the events in American history that helped establish principles of self-government and democracy. The iconic mages of Benjamin West’s painting, Penn’s Treaty with the Indians (1771–72), or Edward Hicks’s many versions of a Peaceable Kingdom (1820s–1840s) have helped perpetuate a mythic version of Penn’s enterprise. The account we read in William Penn’s Holy Experiment by James Proud is far more complicated and problematic.

Penn himself used the term “holy experiment” at least once in a 1681 letter expressing hope that “an example may be set up to the nations” (97). The primary “truth” for Penn, expressed in the original 1682 Frame of Government, was freedom of religion and liberty of conscience for all people living peaceably and justly in civil society. Proud sets out to track the succeses and failures of this experiment through its major themes of peace, religious freedom, public education, friendship with Native Americans, and abolition of slavery. Using original records and source materials, Proud moves beyond Penn’s aspirations for the colony to dig deeply into the legal, religious, political, and financial challenges that remained a constant reality. The author’s legal background is apparent as he navigates through complex legal and political issues that Penn faced during his lifetime, and those that continued after his death until the end of the proprietorship.

The first chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to the political and religious conflicts in England from 1350 to 1682, George Fox’s spiritual journey, Penn’s religious conversion, and his subsequent persecution for his Quaker beliefs. Penn’s early life and his relationship with his father are placed in the historical context of political upheavals in England that spanned the overthrow of Charles I, the establishment of a Commonwealth under Parliament, and the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. Penn’s knowledge of America began with his own involvement in a dispute among Quakers concerning the proprietorship of West Jersey as well as George Fox’s visit to America in 1672. Facing growing debts and intensifying persecutions for his nonconformist religious beliefs, Penn petitioned Charles II for the grant of lands in America to repay an outstanding debt to his father’s estate.

The second chapter covers the period from Penn’s first visit to Pennsylvania in 1682 until his death in 1718. For two years, as the proprietor and governor, Penn worked with the General Assembly to put his Frame of Government into practice. He helped establish a Yearly Meeting of Friends and developed Pennsbury as his manorial seat, before returning to England in 1684 to resolve a contentious boundary dispute with Lord Baltimore. Penn remained in England for the next fifteen years, engaged in the affairs of his colony at a distance, while he struggled with continued political conflicts, arrest and imprisonment, the death of his first wife, and growing debt. Penn’s second visit to Pennsylvania in 1699–1701 was precipitated by concerns that the English Crown was threatening to remove Penn and other proprietors as “chief governor” (139). Accompanied by his new wife, Hannah, Penn established himself at Pennsbury and addressed the governance issues resulting from his long absence. A new Charter of Privileges was enacted, and the Friends Public School was chartered. In 1701 Penn’s meeting with a delegation of Native Americans resulted in Articles of Agreement pledging peace with each other. In November 1701 he returned to England where he continued to govern the colony from afar as he struggled with his personal financial problems and even considered the option of selling Pennsylvania back to the Crown.

The third chapter traces the years following Penn’s death when Hannah Penn was left to oversee the handling of Penn’s estate in England and the family’s holdings in...