We know our volunteers don’t always have the time to read William Penn’s letters and pamphlets, so we will be posting interesting excerpts from his writings for you in Penn’s Pen: Excerpts from the writings of William Penn.
This excerpt is from “Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania,” a promotional tract to encourage people to emigrate to America. Written in 1681, Penn had not actually seen his colony himself, yet here he offers an optimistic outlook for potential settlers:
Next being, by the mercy of God, safely arrived in September or October, two men may clear as much ground by spring (when they set the corn of that country) as will bring in that time, twelve month, forty barrels, which amounts to two hundred bushels, which makes twenty-five quarters of corn. So that the first year they must buy corn, which is usually very plentiful. They may, so soon as they come, buy cows, more or less, as they want or are able, which are to be had at easy rates. For swine, they are plentiful and cheap; those will quickly increase to a stock. So that after the first year, what with the poorer sort sometimes laboring to others, and the more able fishing, fowling, and sometimes buying, they may do very well, till their own stocks are sufficient to supply them and their families…