<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (April 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Quakers in North America constitute approximately 21% of Quakers worldwide (2012), according to the online Quaker Information Center . </P> <P> Quakers (or Friends) are members of a Christian religious movement that started in England in the 17th century, and has spread throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America . Some Quakers originally came to North America to spread their beliefs to the British colonists there, while others came to escape the persecution they experienced in Europe . The first known Quakers in North America arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1656 via Barbados, and were soon joined by other Quaker preachers who converted many colonists to Quakerism . Many Quakers settled in Rhode Island, due to its policy of religious freedom, as well as the British colony of Pennsylvania which was formed by William Penn in 1681 as a haven for persecuted Quakers . </P> <P> Mary Fisher and Ann Austin are the first known Quakers to set foot in the New World . They traveled from England to Barbados in 1655 and then went on to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to spread the beliefs of the Friends among the colonists . </P>

Why did the quakers settle in pennsylvania apex