Episode 63: William Penn's Holy Experiment

On March 10, 2024, we visited two of Pennsylvania's historical sites for free on Charter Day, which commemorated the 343rd anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. On March 4, 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn a charter to the land in the New World between the 39th and 42nd parallel west of the Delaware River by 5 degrees longitude in order to pay off debt he owed Penn's father. William Penn's colony in the New World was called Penn's Holy Experiment because it guaranteed religious freedom. Penn himself was a member of the Society of Friends (or Quakers), which were a persecuted religion in England. Penn's Woods also attracted large numbers of German immigrants from the Rhineland who were persecuted in their homeland for being Anabaptists. Modern descendants of the Anabaptists include the PA Dutch Plain People known as the Amish and Mennonites. In this episode, we visit the Ephrata Cloister, which was founded by Conrad Beissel in 1732 as a semi-monastic settlement of Anabaptists who believed the second coming of Christ would occur in their lifetime. We also visit the Daniel Boone Homestead, where Daniel Boone, a frontiersman who helped to open settlements in Kentucky, was born to Squire Boone, a Quaker immigrant from Devonshire, England. Both sites preserve early PA architecture and important historical items such as an early printing of the Martyr's Mirror, a hymnal of four-part harmony songs composed at the Ephrata Cloister, and many examples of Frakturschriften, or German folk art calligraphy.

[@Phorquieu]

Thanks for posting this film... Such lovely and historic buildings - great examples of what America once was...

[@thisvantasticlife]

Thanks for watching/subscribing!

[@thisvantasticlife]

Correction: PA was founded in 1681 not 1861, please forgive my dyslexia

[@johnbrentford5513]

My German ancestors arrived in Pennsylvania around 1680. But my ancestors were Jewish.

[@thisvantasticlife]

I imagine they were probably also seeking religious freedom