There is no better location in the United States than Philadelphia to learn about the origins of the U.S. system of governance and the role of religion in the nation’s legal system. Philadelphia is well known as the place where the British colonies in North American declared independence in 1776 and also where the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787. It is less known that the colony of Pennsylvania, founded by the Quaker William Penn, was unique among the colonies in that it welcomed religious diversity and did not establish an official church. The Pennsylvania model influenced the Constitution’s First Amendment, which enshrined in U.S. law the legal rights to the free exercise of religion and the prohibition against its establishment of a national religion. The pages below tell the stories of the nation’s founding and how Americans continue to debate the meaning of the First Amendment.

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