Peace under the elm

What happened

William Penn landed in his new province in late October 1682, and Rothbard writes that in November he concluded the first of several treaties of peace and friendship with the Delaware Indians at Shackamaxon, near Philadelphia. The great elm, the hat he kept on his head and the November date are the story as Pennsylvania has told it ever since; Benjamin West's painting of 1771 fixed it in the public mind, brick buildings and all. What Penn himself left is a letter home describing how the Lenape held a council. The sachem sat in the middle of a half-moon with the old and wise on each hand and the young men behind, and when the time came a chosen speaker stood, came to Penn, saluted him in the king's name and took him by the hand. That is the council in the picture. The land deeds that followed were signed in 1683, with Tamanend among the signers. Rothbard's point is that the Quakers bought their land from the Lenape by agreement and treated them as human beings owed respect and even-handed justice, and that the trust this built kept the peace for well over half a century. In his words, "No drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by the Indians" (CiL, p. 394).