Found this Ben Franklin quote as I was doing reading:
Why should the Palatine boors [the Germans] be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by herding together establish their language and manners to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will soon be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion.
Which leads me to one remark: That the number of purely white people in the world is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawney. And in Europe the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes are generally of what we call a swarthy complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only being excepted, who with the English make up the principal body of white people on the face of the earth. I could wish their numbers increased. While we are scouring our planet by clearing America of woods, and so making our side of the planet reflect a brighter light to the inhabitants of Mars or Venus, why should we in the sight of superior beings darken its people? Why increase the sons of Africa by planting them in America, where we have an opportunity, by excluding all blacks and tawneys, of increasing the lovely white and red.”
I find this quote interesting for a number of reasons. Franklin’s hatred of Germans and Scots-Irish people is well-known, but it is surprising to see how deeply ingrained in American history this kind of world-view is. What I also think is remarkable is the last sentence–is he referring to Indians [red] as lovely? Or does he mean pink-cheeked whites?
It seems to me that he is speaking about Indians–which catches us off guard today. It is hard to grasp the complexities of colonial society, wherein Franklin could could designate the French (”swarthy”) as racially different and relatively undesirable while referring to American Indians as “lovely.”
Not something you hear everyday, that’s for sure.
August 1, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Being B. Franklin such an intolerant racist, I dont think he was refering to Native Americans.
November 19, 2007 at 5:53 pm
If you look into history, you’ll find most men living at the time of Ben Franklin share these kind of racist views. It’s a real shocker. How can we truly overcome racism today when these racist ideas are ingrained into our ancestors? These men, including Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson -all believed the white man to be supreme. Look into it, it’s absolutely shocking. No wonder the blacks are still mad at us.
January 29, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Quite frankly, Native Americans were very socially acceptable to the Quakers of Pennsylvania. Most Quakers (in the early years mostly) and Native Americans had very friendly relations because William Penn made sure to attempt to treat them with some semblance of respect. To show how deep the trust went, Native Americans also were “babysitters” for Quaker families. Although not all Quakers were as liberal or gregarious as William Penn, his sons after his death cheated the Lenape (Delaware Indians) out of their land in Northwestern PA with the Walking Purchase, so it wasn’t a perfect society of tolerance, but it was a bit better than situations in, oh say Virginia and Massachusetts. It wasn’t until the Germans & Scotch-Irish (my ancestors) came and started moving into “Indian Territory” that things started really heating up. So to me, a native resident of PA, the last statement actually makes sense. Also, when would a proud Anglo-Saxon man (as Benji Franklin clearly was) ever admit to being anything other than white? It’s obvious, IMO that he means by “red” the Native Americans.