Should William Penn be a heroic figure to American history? Throughout British proprietary colonization of the Americas, there were many different motives for claiming American soil by those whom were audacious enough to consider the prospect of funding a distant statehood. Penn claimed to see his colony as a “holy experiment” (page XIII); who differed from its “peers” in the respect that it had intent to provide refuge to those whom faced religious persecution, even so, the “devout” Quaker, eventually allowed to fall into a state of neglect and sink to the level of its peers. Ironically the people of Pennsylvania became so intolerant of other religions, that, not even after four decades, Paralleled their English “oppressors”. Eventually,
As is also later demonstrated in his relinquishment of the lands of Pennsylvania, and the foundation of its toleration and acceptance upon which it rested its uniqueness and moral high grounds, for a payment in the form of about thirteen thousand pounds. Penn’s actions indicated that he saw the potential that those around him and the people that he encountered or met could have to benefit him, especially with the instance of his handling of the Lenni Lenape American Indians. Penn saw their competence, knowledge, and knack for trade as nothing to be disregarded as an irrelevant factor with zero ability for profitability , not only financially, but also with respect to the exclusive knowledge of the lands that only an American Indian could possess, as the vast majority of previous European colonies had in the Americas. When Penn said, "don't abuse them, but let them have justice and you win them" he gave us a prime demonstration of this thought process of a possible benefit from all encounters with all peoples that Penn would come across(page XIV). The American Indians had a very intricate network of goods and trade, and Penn knew that an asset as valuable as a group of persons with the knowledge and capital to be an invaluable, not to mention lucrative, business entity that could aid the prosperity of the state of the state. Penn established his colony, pledging his commitment to the people and wellbeing of the