About this item
On March 4, 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn a charter for a new American colony. Pennsylvania was to be, in its founder's words, a bold "Holy Experiment" in religious freedom and toleration, a haven for those fleeing persecution in an increasingly intolerant England and across Europe. An activist, political theorist, and the proprietor of his own colony, Penn would become a household name in the New World, despite spending just four years on American soil. Though Penn is an iconic figure in both American and British history, controversy swirled around him during his lifetime. In his early twenties, Penn became a Quaker -- an act of religious as well as political rebellion that put an end to his father's dream that young William would one day join the English elite.
About the Author
Andrew Murphy is Professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. A native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written extensively on the theory and practice of religious liberty in England and America, from his first book, Conscience and Community: Revisiting Toleration and Religious Dissent in Early Modern England and America (2001) , to his most recent: a biography of William Penn entitled William Penn: A Life (2018) . He is the author of Liberty, Conscience, and Toleration: The Political Thought of William Penn (2016) ; and co-editor of The Worlds of William Penn (2019) . A scholarly edition of William Penn's Political Writings is forthcoming in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought series.Murphy's research has also explored the interconnections between religion and American politics, most particularly in Prodigal Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11 (2008) and (co-authored, with David S. Gutterman of Willamette University) Political Religion and Religious Politics: Navigating Identities in the United States (2015) .
