The Literature of Justification - Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania - Timeline (Collapse All)

1681: King Charles II of England grants William Penn a charter to land in America he names Pennsylvania; Penn and his heirs are "true and absolute Proprietaries."

1682: William Penn convenes a treaty council with the Delaware Indians near Philadelphia to purchase land; twelve Indian leaders (sachems) signed the treaty.

The English and they [Delawares] live very peaceably, by reason the English satisfies them for their Land. (Steven Craig Harper, "Promised Land: The Holy Experiment and the Walking Purchase." Ph.D. Dissertation. Lehigh University, 2001: 41)
We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be open-ness and love. (William Penn's speech to Indians on this occasion.)

1701: William Penn holds a council in Philadelphia to set up a treaty with the Conestogas, Shawnees, and Conoys to confirm friendship, trade agreements, and sale to the province of lands on the lower Susquehanna River.

1718: William Penn dies after years of ill health, and the proprietorship of Pennsylvania eventually is handed down to Thomas and John Penn.

1720: Delawares become increasingly alarmed and agitated by the loss of their lands to settlers to whom land speculators have sold properties to which they had no clear title.

Delaware sachem Sassoonan: "Christians settle on lands that the Indians have never been paid for."

1732: Six Nations Indians meet with Thomas Penn in Philadelphia; through an interpreter (German colonist Conrad Weiser), he bargains for more land.

1737: Thomas and John Penn formulate the Walking Purchase, a duplicitous swindle whereby the province acquires much more territory in the Delaware Valley than the Indians intended to grant; angry Delawares later dubbed this Purchase "ye Running Walk." (see essay by Elsie Hamel)

[...]for truth is indeed stranger than fiction and the "Walking Purchase" is pregnant with all those human emotions one would expect to find in a classic novel–villainy, bravery, physical prowess, hatred, love, and revenge! (Ray Thompson, The Walking Purchase Hoax of 1737. Fort Washington: Bicentennial Press, 1973: 3)
American history has attempted to keep a "low profile" on the Walking Purchase of 1737...one of the most sordid pages in the record of Indian-white relations. (Ray Thompson, The Walking Purchase Hoax of 1737. Fort Washington: Bicentennial Press, 1973: 3)

1742: The Penns meet with Six Nations tribes to confirm the sale of Delaware territory; Indians feel cheated and abused when Pennsylvania government tells them to "remove either over to Jersey or beyond the hills."

1762: Treaty at Easton formally settles Delaware complaints about the Walking Purchase