In 1683, ten months after his arrival in America, William Penn wrote this now-famous sketch of Lenni Lenape Society. An acute observer, he was interested in all facets of Indian culture, and his account ranges from descriptions of the Indians' daily lives through discussions of their religious and moral views. Penn interpreted their mode of living with understanding, sympathy and, on occasion, even wistful envy. This edition includes the texts of several early Indian treaties and related documents.
William Penn was an English founder and "Absolute Proprietor" of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future U.S. State of Pennsylvania. He was known as an early champion of democracy and religious freedom and famous for his good relations and his treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, Philadelphia was planned and developed.
As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a Union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame(s) of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe, "European Dyet, Parliament or Estates," in his voluminous writings.
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