Angela Leighton, age 14, of Kansas City, Kan., for her question:
WHY DID WILLIAM PENN COME TO AMERICA?
William Penn was born in London in 1644. The son of a knighted admiral in the British navy, the young man went to school in Essex and to the Christ Church of Oxford University. Because he was a follower of the Quaker religion, he didn't like the university's rule that everyone had to attend Church of England services. Young Penn wanted religious freedom.
When William Penn was a young man in London, followers of the Quaker religion were scorned and ridiculed and sometimes imprisoned. Penn himself was imprisoned three times for writing and preaching about Quakerism.
Penn met many people who wanted to settle where they could worship in their own way without fear. He realized that the only real hope for the Quakers was in America.
In 1680, Penn asked King Charles II to repay a debt of about $80,000 which was owed to his father with wilderness land in America. On March 4, 1681, a charter was granted, giving Penn the territory west of the Delaware River between New York and Maryland.
The king's council added "Penn" to the suggested name of "Sylvania," making the word Pennsylvania, which means Penn's woods.
Penn opened the land to the Quakers and they moved in by the thousands from England, Germany, The Netherlands and Wales. He drew up a Frame of Government for the new colony which later greatly influenced other charters.
The influence of Penn's charter is noticeable even in the Constitution of the United States.
Penn first sailed up the Delaware to his new colony in 1682. He immediately made his first treaty with the Indians. The Indians never attacked the colony because Penn's dealings were always so just.
Penn returned to England in 1684 and for many years he worked to receive pardons for religious prisoners of many faiths. In 1699, he returned to Pennsylvania, where there had been some trouble with government, slavery and piracy.
Penn settled the colony's problems and rewrote the constitution to meet the new needs of the people who were coming to America.
The king's plan to make Penn's colony a royal province never materialized.
Penn returned to London in 1701. He was imprisoned for a year on a false claim of debts and his health was ruined. In 1712, he suffered a stroke which paralyzed him. He lived six more years, however.
When he died, Penn left his interests in Pennsylvania to his four sons.
Pennsylvania became the second state in the United States on Dec. 12, 1787.