The Walking Purchase of 1737 is a notorious event where deceit cost the Lenape (Delaware) people vast tracts of their ancestral lands, including areas now in Lehigh County.
While William Penn, Pennsylvania’s founder, initially honored Indigenous land rights by purchasing territory, this changed with his successors, particularly his son Thomas Penn. A questionable document, presented as a 1686 deed, surfaced, claiming the Lenape had agreed to sell land as far as a man could walk in a day and a half, then east to the Delaware River.
The Lenape were skeptical, believing the document was fake or altered, but reluctantly accepted it.
On September 19, 1737, instead of a casual walk, the Proprietaries hired three trained runners. They ran for a day and a half, covering an astonishing 67 miles. The resulting land claim, surveyed eastward, seized huge portions of what is now eastern Pennsylvania.
The Lenape were outraged, famously noting the runners “no sit down to smoke… but lun, lun, lun all day long.” They felt betrayed and refused to leave.
Despite their resistance, most Lenape were forced off their lands by 1742, partly due to pressure from the Iroquois. This dispossession fueled deep resentment, contributing years later to conflict during the French and Indian War as the Lenape sought to reclaim their lost territory.
The Walking Purchase remains a painful example of colonial land fraud and its devastating impact on Indigenous peoples.
