America Was Founded in “Brotherly Love”—Not Slavery

“All of these Lenape ideas are documented in Penn and Tamanend’s treaties and would later find their way into the Constitution of the United States.”

Editor’s note: This piece marks a further exploration of ideas expressed by its author, Jim Proser, in his November 27th interview with Olivia Malloy.

Some say that America began in slavery and racism, but that is not true. America actually began in mutual respect and “brotherly love” between early Americans and the native Lenape people in what is today Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States.

In fact, many of the most important ideas in the United States Constitution came—at least in part—from the Lenape people, a group of Native Americans who lived in the Northeastern part of what became the United States. For instance, the word “caucus” used to describe certain groups in a legislature originated from a word used by the Lenape for their council meetings.

In 1682, nearly one hundred years before the Constitution of the United States was written, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, William Penn, and Chief Tamanend of the Lenape caucused together under an elm tree on the banks of the Delaware River.

They negotiated a treaty that allowed Penn’s Christian Quakers and the native Lenapes to live in peace with one another. This treaty, the Treaty of Shackamaxon, (and several that followed) maintained peace in Pennsylvania for over 70 years during a period of transition and severe stress between the two groups. These treaties allowed the new colony to become prosperous and eventually form a model for the United States’ national government.