The Seed of a Nation: Rediscovering America
- William Penn

by Darrell Fields

So brilliant was William Penn’s American legacy that Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration of Independence, called him, “the greatest lawgiver the world has produced.” And brilliant he was...not only because Penn’s Charter of Privileges provided the framework for the United States Government but also because of the underlying freedom it provided all people. In fact, our twenty-eighth president, Woodrow Wilson, was so convinced of William Penn’s contributions to America’s foundation that he said, “America did not come out of New England.”

The end of the author’s introduction to the book reads, “...I began my discovery of the person of William Penn and his enduring contribution to the New World. This book chronicles many detailed events and written records of William Penn’s life and heart, but only as they relate to the vital role he played in the first hundred years of America’s history and government. It also accounts for the subsequent events after his death that forced into dormancy the seed he carried. These events shaped our nation long before the American Revolution and long before men like Washington, Jefferson and Franklin took their place in our minds as the founding fathers of freedom.”

The author is a pastor, evident in his closing chapters where he has numerous biblical passages quoted and how they relate to both William Penn and contemporary life.

Paperback, 2005, illustrations, 272 pages, $18.00.