State Library of Pennsylvania - Benjamin Franklin

Active Filters:
  • Date = 1764

About This Collection

Materials by and about Benjamin Franklin from the State Library collection digitized in commemoration of his 300th birthday.
Displaying 2 items
Filter
Conduct of the Paxton-men, impartially represented; the distresses of the frontiers, and the complaints and sufferings of the people fully stated ... With some remarks upon the Narrative, of the Indian-massacre, lately publish'd. Interspers'd with several interesting anecdotes, relating to the military genius, and warlike principles of the people call'd Quakers: together-with proper reflection and advice upon the whole. In a letter from a gentleman in one of the back counties, to a friend in Philadelphia. ...
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790 -- Narrative of the late massacres, Paxton boys, Conestoga Indians, Indians of North America -- Pennsylvania, Massacres, Pennsylvania -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775, Lancaster County (Pa.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Writing in response to the reports of and commentary on the recent masssacre of Native Americans in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania -- and especially to Benjamin Franklin's 'A Narrative of the Late Massacres' -- Thomas Barton defends the actions of the Paxton Boys, who carried out the killings. His argument includes characterizations of the Philadelphia Quakers who are not, he argues, as pacifistic as they claim to be. Barton ends the pamphlet by asking his reader to advise the "visionary Quakers and Don Quixotes" that they should hear the complaints of the people and remove the Indians from the scene in order to restore peace, harmony, and good order in the colony.
More
Narrative of the late massacres, in Lancaster County, of a number of Indians, friends of this province, by persons unknown : With some observations on the same.
Paxton boys, Conestoga Indians, Pennsylvania -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Benjamin Franklin decries the recent massacre by the self-styled Paxton Boys of peaceful Native Americans belonging to the Conestoga tribe in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and the subsequent murder by mob action against those remaining Indians who had been taken to the county workhouse for protection. By contrast, he recounts examples of the "rite of hospitality" exercised on behalf of their enemies by ancient Greeks in Homer's Ulysses, by Muslim Moors under the Saracens, by native Africans in Guinea, and by Native Americans. Franklin also includes copies of proclamations by Governor John Penn against the outrage. The pamphlet concludes with calls for justice against the perpetrators.
More