Pennsylvania
Where brotherly love is in plenty, just like the land
What's in a name?
King Charles II of England had accumulated a substantial amount of debt in the amount of $80,000 to be owed to Admiral Sir William Penn. To relieve his debt, the King granted land in America to the admiral's son, also named William Penn in 1681. At first Penn named the land New Wales, that was over turned so he then named it Sylvania. The king then changed the name to Pennsylvania to honor the admiral.
A Settler's Note
King Charles II paved the way for our colony here in Pennsylvania. His debt worked in our favor as Admiral Sir William Penn's son was granted this land as payment. When my father learned of the region in America where people had self-government, freedom of religion, and land at a fair price he packed up our family; my mother, brother, and myself and we set sail on one of the twenty-three ships that sailed up the Delaware in 1682. Among us was William Penn himself, along with about 2,000 other settlers. We arrived in Philadelphia where the colony had already reached 4,000 people! I did feel a bit of relief that we weren't the first to settle. I had heard tales of painstakingly hard work and wild Natives and I was in no mood to deal with either. Penn had a plan though in which he mapped the settlements along a grid and made harmonious relations with the Indians. As our settlement became more successful, more people flooded in. Many different languages and cultures were practiced and even though not all of Penn's plans for a cohesive, hierarchical society came to fruition, we were a prosperous group who came to own slaves who strengthened our homesteads and economy.