State Library of Pennsylvania - Benjamin Franklin

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  • Subject = Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790 -- Narrative of the late massacres

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Materials by and about Benjamin Franklin from the State Library collection digitized in commemoration of his 300th birthday.

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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.