Episode 1: “Freedom (until 1700)” will be screened Thursday, Oct. 29, at Germantown Friends School, 31 W. Coulter St., Germantown. Doors open at 6 p.m. The screening and panel discussion that follows will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m. RSVP to attend a screening, inpursuit.tv/attend-a-screening
In Episode 1 of “In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America,” we travel to the forests and inlets of the mid-Atlantic coast, where the Lenape, the “Original People,” have lived at liberty for 18,000 years. After more than half a century of devastating disease and colonial encroachment …
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Episode 1: “Freedom (until 1700)” will be screened Thursday, Oct. 29, at Germantown Friends School, 31 W. Coulter St., Germantown. Doors open at 6 p.m. The screening and panel discussion that follows will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m. RSVP to attend a screening, inpursuit.tv/attend-a-screening
In Episode 1 of “In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America,” we travel to the forests and inlets of the mid-Atlantic coast, where the Lenape, the “Original People,” have lived at liberty for 18,000 years. After more than half a century of devastating disease and colonial encroachment led by the Dutch West India Company, their world is forever changed. Lenape warriors revolt and massacre the Dutch colony at Swaanendael.
Into this fragile landscape comes English Quaker visionary William Penn, disciple of George Fox, pursuing a bold experiment in religious freedom and coexistence. His colony, late among the original North American colonies of King Charles II, promises tolerance and peace, and institutes American concepts of individual rights and trial by jury. Yet even as Pennsylvania is founded on ideals of liberty negotiated with Lenape sachem (leader) Tamanend, slavery is already taking root. German Quaker settlers led by Frances Daniel Pastorius organize a formal protest against slavery for the first time on American soil.
Can freedom truly flourish in a society built on contradiction? This episode features Lenape elder Michael Pace, cultural leader Jeremy Johnson, the poet Ursula Rucker and historian Allen Guelzo.
This 10-part historical documentary explores the complex origins of Philadelphia and the United States, and the enduring tensions around liberty, equality and democracy that continue to shape the nation today.
