On March 4, 1681, King Charles II of England granted William Penn a New World colony as payment for a debt of 16,000 pounds the King owed to Penn’s father, a deceased admiral in the British Navy.
Q. Why did Charles 2 give Penn the land for his colony?
Persecuted in England for his Quaker faith, Penn came to America in 1682 and established Pennsylvania as a place where people could enjoy freedom of religion. Penn obtained the land from King Charles II as payment for a debt owed to his deceased father.
Table of Contents
Q. Who received the land of Pennsylvania?
| Province of Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|
| History | |
| • Land grant by Charles II of England to William Penn | March 4 1681 |
| • Declaration of Independence | July 4 1776 |
| Currency | Pennsylvania pound |
The Charter King Charles II owed William Penn £16,000, money which his late father Admiral Sir Penn had lent him. Seeking a haven in the New World for persecuted Friends, Penn asked the King to grant him land in the territory between Lord Baltimore’s province of Maryland and the Duke of York’s province of New York.
Q. How much did Charles II owe William Penn?
Q. What group of people first settled Pennsylvania?
Swedes were the first European settlers in Pennsylvania. Traveling up the Delaware from a settlement at the present site of Wilmington, Del., Gov. Johan Printz of the colony of New Sweden established his capital on Tinicum Island (New Gothenborg) in 1643.
Q. Did Penn own slaves?
William Penn, the proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania, held at least 12 slaves. They took part in construction of the main house and outbuildings on his estate, Pennsbury. Penn left the colony in 1701, and never returned.
Q. Did New York have slaves?
In 1817 a new law passed that would free slaves born before 1799 but not until 1827. By the 1830 census there were only 75 slaves in New York and the 1840 census listed no slaves in New York City.
Q. What was slavery like in New York?
And there is ample evidence that slavery within New York itself was far from easy. Although New York had no sugar or rice plantations, there was plenty of backbreaking work for slaves throughout the state. Many households held only one or two slaves, which often meant arduous, lonely labor.
