Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

12
Pennsylvania: Quakers and Indians
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the original, purely individualist
Quaker principles had been modified by the proprietor of Pennsylvania,
William Penn, and by the ruling proprietary party headed by Pennsylvania's
agent, James Logan. The libertarian Quaker opposition continued to be
strong, however, and was led by David Lloyd, many times Speaker of the
Assembly. Lloyd led the struggle against feudal quitrents, against attempts to
aid wars and to impose increased taxation, and against a proprietary veto or
the power of the governor to dissolve the Assembly.
William Penn died in 1718, in a period of confusion and tumult over the
inheritance of the proprietorship. These disputes were settled by the late
1720s with Penn's younger son assuming the proprietorship. But when
Thomas Penn succeeded to the proprietorship in 1746, rule over Pennsylvania
passed out of Quaker hands. For Thomas Penn and his heirs had left the
Quaker fold to become Anglicans, and after Logan's death the proprietary
agent of Pennsylvania was an Anglican, the Reverend Richard Peters.
With the proprietorship no longer Quaker, the Quakers tended to unite
against the proprietary and to recover some of the purity of their principles.
Even when modified, Quaker principles were radical enough to be unique
in the colonies. Nowhere was this uniqueness more outstanding than in military
affairs and in their treatment of the Indians. William Penn had from the
beginning set the pattern of peace and justice to the Indians, and scrupulously
purchased Indian land claims even when the claims themselves were
dubious. Pursuing a policy of peace, incomprehensible to most of the other
colonists, who were generally conscienceless in slaughtering the Indians, the
Quakers of Pennsylvania built no forts, established no militia, and hired no
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