Preview of Penn Summary:

As a prominent Quaker leader and the founder of Pennsylvania, William Perm is an important figure in religious and political history. He worked to bring religious freedom and tolerance to his native Britain, and when Pennsylvania was established as the last of the restoration colonies, he sought to graft these principles to the American experience. The colony's constitution, which Perm helped to compose, served as a model for the U.S. Constitution.

Pennsylvania's democratic heritage was strengthened further when Perm made a peace treaty with the Native Americans who lived in the colony. Voltaire, a French philosopher, noted that the document was the only treaty with Native Americans that was "never sworn to and never broken." Neither the Quakers nor the Native Americans saw any need to swear to their word. Perm's vision extended to the international realm.

More than two hundred years ahead of his time, he...