20 a short history of the united states
grant the son a tract of land in full payment of the debt. William Penn
realized that it could be a haven for persecuted Quakers, and in 1681 he
received a charter, which made him the proprietor of what is now the
state of Pennsylvania. Young Penn also persuaded the duke of York to
cede to him the three lower counties on the Delaware River that the
Dutch had seized from the Swedes years earlier. These three counties
remained a part of the Penn proprietary domain until the American
Revolution, when they asserted their inde pendence and became the
state of Delaware.
What is remarkable about Pennsylvania was the liberality with
which it was governed. It became a “holy experiment” in which every-
one could live in peace and harmony. And that included Indians. In his
Frame of Government of 1682 , Penn included a governor with an ap-
pointed council who originated all laws, along with an assembly, which
initially lacked real authority but over time became more self-assertive.
Most important of all, Penn advertised in England and on the conti-
nent, inviting people of all nationalities to settle in his colony and
offering land at extremely low prices. Dutch, Welsh, Swedish, French,
German, and English emigrants responded to his appeals, and Penn-
sylvania soon became the most populous and prosperous of all the
American colonies.
In 1732, Georgia was founded, when James Oglethon obtained a
twenty-one-year charter from George II to a group of trustees for land
between Savannah and Altmaha rivers.
Because of climate variations, soil conditions, the type of set-
tlers, and the reasons that brought them to the different areas of the
New World, among other things, a distinctive culture soon evolved
within each of three areas: the New England, Middle, and Southern
colonies. New England, for example, engaged in shipbuilding because
of the sturdy, straight, tall pines that grew throughout the region. Fish-
ing also became an important component of the New England economy.
But many settlers built small farms in clusters around a seaport or far-
ther inland near rivers or streams. Each cluster comprised a village, with
a section of land held as commons to serve all the nearby inhabitants for
such purposes as grazing cattle. Since the settlers were predominantly