“Notes Concerning the Savages” Benjamin Franklin

Background Benjamin Franklin is well known as a humorist and as an author who regularly used pseudonyms during his writing career. Franklin is also known for employing satire as a means of making his arguments more palatable to the masses.

Satire Satire uses humor as an instruction tool and usually relates a more serious issue in a humorous light in order to produce a positive societal change. Sarcasm, which literally means “to rip or tear the flesh,” is often intended to hurt or diminish the receiver in some manner. Sardonic humor is a particularly sharp or bitter form of sarcasm. Figures like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are modern satirists from television.

Read – Question #1 Where do you see Franklin’s belief in logic and reason demonstrated in his essay? Franklin’s persistent comparison of each culture’s “civility” (Franklin) creates and organized, logical structure that allows the cultures to be compared with a degree of emotional detachment.

Read – Question #2 How does Franklin use the word savage for effect? Because Franklin works so diligently to portray a lack of savagery, the use of the word savage (Franklin) becomes hyperbolic and absurd, which might also make an emotional appeal to an audience, making them feel guilt for using the word so lightly.

Read – Question #3 Where do you hear Franklin’s emotional response in the essay? Anecdotes like the Treaty of Lancaster or the conversation with Conrad Weiser are moments where colonists are made to look foolish because of their assumptions of superiority.

Read – Question #4 How does the opening paragraph establish Franklin’s position? His use of antithesis, “they think the same of theirs” (Franklin), combined with the tongue-in-cheek use of “savages” (Franklin), suggests that he does not view them as such.

Write – Question #1 Write a paragraph that describes Franklin’s attitude about the religion practiced by the colonists. (Paragraph 7, p. 220) “The missionaries who have attempted to convert them to Christianity all complain of this as one of the great difficulties of their mission. The Indians hear with patience the truths of the Gospel explained to them, and give their usual tokens of assent and approbation; you would think they were convinced. No such matter. It is mere civility” (Franklin).

Write – Question #1 (cont’d) (Paragraph 8, p. 220) “A Swedish minister, having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanah Indians, made a sermon to them, acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded; such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief, His miracles and suffering, etc. When he had finished, an Indian orator stood up to thank him. ‘What you have told us,’ he says ‘is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far, to tell us these things which you have heard from your mothers” (Franklin).

Write – Question #1 (cont’d) (Paragraph 8, p. 220) “The good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said, ‘What I delivered to you were sacred truths; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood.’ The Indian offended, replied ‘My brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we who understand and practice those rules, believed all your stories; you refuse to believe ours?’” (Franklin).

Write – Question #1 (cont’d) (Paragraph 10, pp. 221-222) “Conrad [Weiser] answered all his [Canassatego’s] questions; and when the discourse began to flag, the Indian, to continue it, said, ‘Conrad, you have lived among the white people, and know something of their customs; I have been sometimes at Albany, and have observed, that once in seven days they shut up their shops, and assemble all in the great house; tell me what it is for. What do they do there?’ ‘They meet there,’ says Conrad, ‘to hear and learn good things.’ ‘I do not doubt,’ says the Indian, ‘that they tell you so; they have told me the same; but I doubt the truth of what they say…” (Franklin).

Write – Question #1 (Paragraph 10, pp. 221-222) Story of merchant and the beaver pelt price “You see they have not yet learned those little good things, that we need no meetings to be instructed in, because our Mothers taught them to us when we were children; and therefore it is impossible their meetings should be, as they say, for any such purpose, or have any such effect; they are only to contrive the cheating of Indians in the price of beaver” (Franklin).

Write – Question #2 Find two or three instances where Franklin uses irony. What is the effect on the reader? “Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs” (Franklin). “Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different nations with impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as to be without any rules of politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some remains of rudeness” (Franklin).

Write – Question #2 (cont’d) Differences in the colonists’ education at the university at Williamsburg and the Indian education “…Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counselors; they were totally good for nothing” (Franklin).

Write – Question #2 (cont’d) “The politeness of these savages in conversation is indeed carried to excess, since it does not permit them to contradict or deny the truth of what is asserted in their presence” (Franklin).

Write – Question #3 Twenty-first readers often think of Franklin as a reasonable, logical writer as well as practical. Explain how this essay fits into that characterization of his writing. Franklin introduces his topic of civility and seems to suggest, from the title), that this essay will concern the incivility of the Indians; however, by paragraph 3, the reader discovers that he feels just the opposite.

Write – Question #3 (cont’d) Introduction of civility Discussion of young men being hunters and warriors and older men being wise counselors Discussion of differing views of what education consists of Discussion of their means of governance and historical record-keeping Discussion of the politeness of the Indians as they hear from the missionaries Discussion of their offense at the Swedish minister’s not listening to their view of religion Discussion of how the Indians value others’ privacy Discussion of the Indians’ hospitality toward strangers Discussion of religious practice

Connect – Question #1 What democratic values does Franklin use to make his argument? John Locke – All men are by nature free and equal. This democratic ideal which is so much a part of the American identity is found through the works of Franklin, who was a contributing writer on the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.  Therefore, as indigenous peoples, Indians have the same rights to govern as the colonists, and the Indians have a greater understanding of the true value of a democratic society.

Connect – Question #1 (cont’d) What do you think he wanted his audience to feel or do? Franklin’s logical approach will likely get an emotional reaction from his audience, which Franklin may hope will lead to a more moderate attitude toward the “savages” (Franklin).