William Penn American Hero
Should William Penn be a heroic figure to American history? Throughout British proprietary colonization of the Americas, there were many different motives for claiming American soil by those whom were audacious enough to consider the prospect of funding a distant statehood. Penn claimed to see his colony as a “holy experiment” (page XIII); who differed from its “peers” in the respect that it had intent to provide refuge to those whom faced religious persecution, even so, the “devout” Quaker, eventually allowed to fall into a state of neglect and sink to the level of its peers. Ironically the people of Pennsylvania became so intolerant of other religions, that, not even after four decades, Paralleled their English “oppressors”. Eventually, even Penn gave up on his colony and sold it, nullifying the basis of its moral foundation. Penn founded the colony on the idea that every man could love one another as a brother would his own flesh and blood, which, if truly observed by Penn, would never be compromised to the influence of social dogma. Penn should not, by any standard, be considered an American Hero. Penn cannot be considered an American hero, in the light of sheer definition, as he could not be viewed as an American in the eyes of himself, his subordinates, “brothers”, or the English Gentry, which he had been raised so prominently into with such an opportunity to advance his family name. Penn’s parents raised him into the world of the English Gentry, bred to be a gentleman and carry on the Penn legacy with a distinguished career. While Penn may be dreamt of in a heroic light by many, he should be considered, in every examined case, as a hardcore Englishman. As Penn, born, raised in, and educated in England. Penn, along with many other English proprietors, believed that objectives such as finding personal-salvation as well as being afforded the opportunity to serve their countrymen and glory to the English crown could be achieved without holding residence