Key events that shaped law and culture:
An early tradition of cultural diversity:
An early tradition of opposition to an established church:
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Lotter map of mid-Atlantic colonies, 1756 - courtesy Wikimedia Commons “[Pennsylvanians are] a perverse, obstinant and turbulent people, that will not submit to any power or Lawes but their own.” – Judge Robert Quary
“I know what is said by the several admirers of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, which are the rule of one, a few, and many, and are the three common ideas of govt, when men discourse on the subject. But I chuse to solve the controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs to all three: Any government is free to the people under it (whatever be the frame) where the laws rule, and the people are a party to these laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy or confusion.” – William Penn, Pennsylvania Frame of Government (1683) William Penn - courtesy Wikimedia Commons“Because no People can be truly happy, though under the greatest Enjoyment of Civil Liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Consciences … [a]nd Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; … I do hereby grant and declare, That no person or Persons, inhabiting in this Province … who shall confess and acknowledge One almighty God … shall be in any Case molested or prejudiced … because of his or their conscientious Persuasion or Practice, nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious Worship, Place or Ministry, contrary to his or their Mind, or to do or suffer any other Act or Thing, contrary to their Religious Persuasion.” – William Penn, Charter of Privileges for Pennsylvania (1701) |