2.3 Historical Interpretation of Middle Colonies

“The extremely heterogeneous population confronted Pennsylvania with a unique set of problems that could have impeded the creation of a stable society. Nevertheless, despite the inevitable tensions, exacerbated by waves of new immigration, war, and religious conflict, colonial Pennsylvanians managed to develop new ideals of pluralism and tolerance on which they built their province...William Penn set forth a new ideological basis for pluralism and tolerance that transformed the tentative pattern of relative harmony and toleration into one of official policy.”

Sally Schwartz, A Mixed Multitude: The Struggle for Toleration in Colonial Pennsylvania, 1987

“Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, northern Maryland, and parts of New York - colonies that together made the eighteenth century mid-Atlantic perhaps the most racially, ethnically, and religiously mixed place in the world...were unintended byproducts of a force that is now alien: early modern settler colonialism, in which huge numbers of Europeans and Africans were drawn across the ocean, in freedom and in bondage, and replanted in new landscapes...With few exceptions, living together made the different sorts of people living there feel frightened of one another’s intentions. Forced proximity brought many groups to a fresh appreciation for their own distinctive ways, ways they thought of as “traditional” and fought to recover amid the disturbing novelties that came with diversity. Most strove both to make the other peoples around them act more like themselves and keep, if they could, from coming to resemble their neighbors, making for a jittery, culturally competitive society.”

Peter Silver, Our Savage Nieghbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America, 2008