Savages

Benjamin Franklin Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784) Savages we call them, because their manners dissent from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs. Perhaps, if we could learn 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. The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors, when old, counselors; for all their government is by counsel of the sages; on that point is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to bind obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory, the scoop out speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, entertain and bring up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honorable. Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for improvement by conversation. Our laborious manner of life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish and base; and the learning, on which we value ourselves, they regard as frivolous and useless.

An instance of this occurred at the Treaty of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, anno 1744, between the government of Virginia and the Six Nations (1. A confederation of Iroquois tribes: Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk, and Tuscarora.) After the principal business was settled, the commissioners from Virginia acquainted the Indians by a speech, that there was at Williamsburg a college, with a inventory for educating Indian youth; and that, if the Six Nations would send down half a dozen of their young lads to that college, the government would take sustenance that they should be well provided for, and instructed in all the learning of the fair people. It is one of the Indian rules of politeness not to answer a public proposition the same day that it is... If you want to cleave a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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