The weather is finally turning. Hot, humid, sultry days have given way to cooler, drier weather, marking the transition from summer to autumn. Yesterday it rained, confining most of the delegates to their lodgings, writing letters and conferring with their colleagues about the final decisions to be made before their work is complete. David Brearley’s Committee on Postponed Parts is hard at work, preparing for tomorrow’s session.

On Sunday mornings, many Philadelphians attend worship services at the Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, or another of the many churches dotting the Philadelphia landscape. Pennsylvania has been a haven for religious diversity since its founding by William Penn in March 1681. Its name translates roughly as “Penn’s Woods,” and the colony remained in the hands of the Penn family until the Revolution when it became the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and one of the original thirteen States. The lower counties on the Delaware River had been a separate colony within the province and became a separate State on June 15, 1776 .

William Penn was born in London in October 1644 and was living with his family in Ireland when he first encountered Thomas Loe at age fifteen. Loe was a Quaker missionary whose teachings were anathema to both Protestants and Catholics, but William was intrigued by Loe’s discourses on the “Inner Light.” When the Penns returned to England, William enrolled at Oxford where he rebelled against the government’s discouragement of dissent. His parents were so concerned about their errant son’s impact on the family’s social standing and his father’s career, they sent him to Paris, but not until after his father had attacked him with a cane and thrown him out of the house.

Two years in Paris refined William’s manners and expanded his interests, helping to bridge the gap between William and his parents. In 1666, he was sent back to Ireland to manage family holdings, reconnected with Loe, and began attending Quaker meetings, despite legal restrictions placed on religious dissenters, including Quakers. William was arrested for attending illegal services and when encouraged to denounce the sect, he declared he was a member and officially joined the Quakers. Upon returning to England, he found his father outraged at his actions, was thrown out of the house, and informed by his father of his intent to disinherit him.

Now homeless, William began living with Quaker families and became close friends with the founder of the sect, George Fox. In 1668, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for publishing a tract criticizing almost all religions except Quakerism. After eight months, he was released but arrested again on more than one occasion. Before his father died, the two men were reconciled, and William learned he had not been disinherited. William continued to agitate in favor of his Quaker beliefs and his right to practice and publish them.

With thousands of Quakers in England, Holland, and other countries persecuted and imprisoned for their religious views, William appealed directly to the English King and the Duke of York, heir to the throne. His father’s good standing and his own acquaintance with them proved to be helpful when he proposed that Quakers emigrate to the New World. He was soon granted an exceptionally generous 45,000 square miles of land, in payment for debts owed by the King to William’s father. On March 4, 1681, King Charles II signed a charter for what would soon become Pennsylvania.

William, now married, traveled to his new estate, and immediately drafted a charter of liberties guaranteeing trial by jury, freedom from unjust imprisonment, free elections, and freedom of worship.

Quakers, also known as the Society of Friends, are a Christian sect emphasizing an “inner light” and the work of the Holy Spirit. Its founder, George Fox, denied the necessity of ordained clergy and believed that a person can have a direct relationship with Jesus Christ. Like many Christian denominations, especially those eschewing an organized structure and institutional clergy, there are differing views within Quaker thought. In general, Quakers are known for wearing plain clothes, avoiding strong drink and swearing, refusing to participate in war, and opposition to slavery. They are frequently known by their quaint use of “thee,” “thou,” and similar terms in their speech. Their Sunday services, called “meetings,” take place at the “meeting house” and are austere and simple in form, often without the use of musical instruments.

During the Revolution, a rift developed between different factions of Quakers when a small group called Free Quakers supported the war and were “read out of the meeting” by mainstream Friends. An important feature common to all Quakers is opposition to slavery. Although in the past some Quakers, like many colonists, owned slaves, by the time of the Revolution abolitionism had become a major part of the Quaker movement. Best exemplified by the work of men such as Anthony Benezet, founder of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the Quakers were among the first white people to denounce slavery in the colonies and in England as well as the slave trade.

Benezet’s work was not limited to abolition of slavery. He also organized the first public school for girls in North American and in 1770 the Negro School at Philadelphia. Among his teachings were kind treatment of animals and vegetarianism. After Benezet’s death in 1784, just three years ago, Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush have continued his work under a new name, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

Over time, Quakers settled in most of the northern and middle colonies. While their pacifism prohibits participation in armed conflict, it has not prevented many of them from protesting peacefully against onerous British taxes and regulations, using persuasion instead of arms.