On March 4, 1681, King Charles II of Great Britain granted William Penn a colony in North America, paving the way for a Holy Experiment in participatory government, religious toleration and brotherly love.

Penn wanted his colony to be a sanctuary for Quakers who were being persecuted in Great Britain. He also hope that the province would be a land where people of differing languages and customs could live together, where men and women could worship as they pleased, where men could participate fully in their government. Such a land, Penn believed, would become a model for other nations.

This talk will explain why Penn abandoned his privileged background to join the Quakers, a despised religious sect, and sacrifice his personal wealth and reputation to establish such a Holy Experiment. It will also explore the successes and shortcomings of his virtuous experiment.

Between 1853 and 1861, William Still, a free black Philadelphian, coordinated the movements of nearly 1,000 fugitive slaves along the Underground Railroad in violation of the federal Fugitive Slave Law. Later, he became a pioneer in Philadelphia’s early civil rights movement.

This talk explores Still’s abolitionist tactics, explains why he has been overlooked by historians until recently and reveals the findings of a multivariate analysis of the 995 runaways Still assisted to freedom offering an important corrective to the historiography of the Underground Railroad.

Abraham Lincoln and the Religious Society of Friends shared a similar dilemma during the Civil War - how to achieve emancipation without extending the bloodshed and hardship of war.

This talk will distinguish between the reality of Lincoln’s relationship with the Quakers and the mythology that has emerged over time.

It will also explore how Lincoln skillfully navigated his relationship with one of the most vocal and politically active religious groups of the 19th century and how the Quakers influenced the president’s thinking on emancipation, conscientious objection and the relief of Freedmen.

Between 1861 and 1875, a series of violent assaults and murders in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region was blamed on a secret society of Irish immigrant coal miners known as the Molly Maguires.

Seeking revenge for poor wages and life-threatening working conditions, the Mollies killed 24 mine foremen and supervisors. The coal operators hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to infiltrate the vigilante group. The resulting trials led to the prosecution and hanging of 10 Mollies based on the testimony of one agent. It was an outrageous perversion of the criminal justice system.

This talk will explore the question, “Did the Molly Maguires actually exist, or were they simply a fabrication of the coal operators intent on destroying a budding union movement among the Irish miners they exploited?”

Charles Albert Bender was one of baseball’s most talented pitchers. Between 1910 and 1914, Bender was the ace of the Philadelphia Athletics, helping them to three World Series titles and four pennants. By the end of his major league career in 1925, he had compiled 212 victories and more than 1,700 strikeouts. In 1953, Bender became the first Native American Indian elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

But as a high-profile Chippewa Indian in a bigoted society, Bender knew first-hand the trauma of racism. Some suspect that he threw the 1914 World Series in order to get even with his manager, Connie Mack, who patronized him, and Philadelphia’s baseball fans who taunted him with racial epithets from the stands.

This talk will explore the tragedy of Bender’s assimilation into white mainstream society, his baseball career and the haunting suspicion that he threw the 1914 World Series.

Of all the professional sports teams ever to play in Philadelphia, Connie Mack’s Athletics (1902-1954) remain the most successful – and frustrating. Their 5 World Series titles and 9 American League pennants were balanced with 17 last-place finishes. Mack’s 3,776 victories as a manager were only exceeded by the 4,025 defeats he suffered.

This talk tells the story of the legendary skipper and his talented, often comedic baseball teams. It will also highlight the careers of many Hall of Famers who played for the Tall Tactician, including: Ty Cobb, Mickey Cochrane, Eddie Collins, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove and the colorful Rube Waddell and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

In the spring of 1945, Pete Gray, who lost his arm in a childhood accident, made his major league debut with the St. Louis Browns. Dubbed the “One-Armed Wonder” by the sportswriters, Gray was a controversial figure from the start of his professional career. Club owners saw him as a gate attraction for war-weary baseball fans while some teammates believed he cost them the chance to capture a second pennant. This talk explores Gray’s rise from humble beginnings, his minor and major league careers and the inspiration he provided for servicemen returning home from World War II as amputees.

Star players of the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella were the first black players to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier. But their different approaches to civil rights led to a bitter estrangement.

Robinson, the more aggressive and intense of the two, believed that Jim Crow should be attacked head-on. Campanella, more passive and easygoing, thought that ability, not militancy, was the key to racial equality.

This talk explains the personal differences between these two baseball icons, how their differences influenced their Dodger teammates and how the two men eventually reconciled.

John F. Kennedy’s foreign policy was based on the stirring rhetoric of his inaugural speech, in which he said: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” It was a blatant challenge to Soviet Communism.

In fact, Kennedy’s foreign policy was a mixed success at best. His attempts to overthrow Communism in Cuba and North Vietnam failed and he brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war during the Cuban missile Crisis.

But JFK also signed a treaty banning the atmospheric testing of missiles, put a man on the moon and established the Peace Corps to aid developing nations.

This talk will explore the question, “Was JFK a ‘Cold Warrior’ who instigated crises with the Soviet Union, or a ‘dove’ who sought a peaceful resolution of differences between the two superpowers?