A Life Devoted to Relocating European Refugees to America

Michel's Pennsylvania Colony

In his twenties, Michel decided to devote his life to the humanitarian rescue of European religious and war refugees and relocating them to six American colonies that he would create for them. The most successful of these was begun at Pequea, Pennsylvania, in 1710 when Michel settled a group of persecuted Swiss Mennonite refugees there. Others soon began pouring in creating the Pennsylvania Dutch country of today.