No discussion of religious freedom in the USA is complete without mentioning the extraordinary efforts of William Penn. King Charles II owed the Penn family $80,000. Penn, hoping to establish a haven for the persecuted, asked the King to pay him with wilderness land in America.
In 1681 King Charles II gave William Penn the largest territory ever granted a British subject and named it Pennsylvania. Penn gave his life to what he called the "holy experiment", granting absolute religious freedom, and proactively pursuing and recruiting immigrants. He invited the persecuted everywhere to come to his colony.
My family and I owe a personal debt to Penn. My Wilcox ancestors (through Grandma Hill) were on his ship on his last trip to Penn's Woods. The bulk of our Wilcox's remained Quakers for nearly two centuries.
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