History: William Penn was a slave owner. (Module 3)

William Penn was a devout member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. On March 4, 1681 Charles II signed a charter for territory to settle his debt with Penn’s late father. The King proposed the name “Pennsylvania” which means “Forests of Penn” to honor Penn’s late father, the Admiral. Penn became the proprietor, owning all the land, accountable directly to the King. (Powell) “He hoped that Pennsylvania could be governed according to Quaker principles, among them the equality of all persons (including women, blacks, and Indians) before God and the primacy of the individual conscience. To Quakers, liberty was a universal entitlement, not the possession of any single people-a position that would eventually make them the first group of whites to repudiate slavery. (Foner 92) The Indians stated, “They longed for the days when “old William Penn” treated them with fairness and respect” (Foner 114) In Foner’s book, William Penn is described as an activist of equality and yet I found in other documents that he owned slaves.

In Douglas Harper’s "Slavery in Pennsylvania" he states, Penn himself owned slaves, and used them to work his estates, Pennsbury. He wrote that he preferred them to white indentured servants, “for then a man has them while they live.” On America.gov, Ralph Dannheisser states, Penn believed, author Betty Wood has said that “slavery was perfectly acceptable, provided that slave owners attended to the spiritual and material needs of those they enslaved.” On US History.org in the "Brief History of William Penn" it states “There have been claims that he also fought slavery, but that seems unlikely, as he owned and even traded slaves himself. However, he did promote good treatment for slaves, and other Pennsylvania Quakers were among the earliest fighters against slavery. Penn condoned slavery as long as you treated slaves well. The documents don’t explore the subject any further but go onto discuss Penn’s other accomplishments.

On November 28, 1984 Ronald Reagon declared William Penn and Hannah Callowhill Penn to be an Honorary Citizen of the United States. (US History.org) William Penn was the first great hero of American Liberty. For the first time in modem history, a large society offered equal rights to people of different races and religions. (Powell) I don’t think I am able to come to a conclusion about honoring William Penn due to not having all the information. Jim Powell who wrote "William Penn, America’s First Great Champion for Liberty and Peace", thinks William Penn was the first great hero but how can that be when he contradicted what he was fighting for? The history of William Penn only states those few sentences on him owning slaves and trading slaves. I wasn’t able to find further documentation that explains his full involvement in slavery. Again we don’t have the full details of William Penn’s history to form your own opinion.