Carl Reader

The Persecution of William Penn Carl Reader

The story of William Penn is one of great personal tragedy as well as great ability and courage in the face of religious persecution. In England in the seventeenth century, Penn was jailed six times for his beliefs as a Quaker, yet through his connections at court and his deep understanding, good will and intelligence, he managed to establish Pennsylvania as a free, democratic colony. This book tells in the form of his personal testimony of the hangings, beatings, intimidation and imprisonments suffered by those in England, and of how Penn transformed the political and religious oppression of the old order into the freedom of the New World. Thomas Jefferson called Penn the greatest law-giver the world has ever known, and Jefferson borrowed from Penn's Charter of Privileges to create the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. As a Founding Father, Penn has rarely been given credit due him for the political and religious freedom of America, but without Penn there might never have been an independent and free United States.