Respuesta :
In "Remarks Concerning The Savages of North America," Benjamin Franklin wants to defend the reputation of Native Americans by arguing that they were not "savages," as Europeans thought. Instead, they were very advanced people with social rules that were just as complex and virtuous as those of colonists, and sometimes even more so.
He gives many arguments to support this claim, but one example is the way they conducted councils. Everyone in the community participated in these councils, and Franklin argues that speakers did not interrupt each other, listened attentively and conducted everything with order and decency. He compares this to the way the British House of Commons carried out its sessions: the speaker constantly calling to order amid interruptions and confusion.
Another example he gives is that of the interactions between the two groups. Franklin says that when Europeans met Native Americans, they crowded around them, staring at them and making them uncomfortable. The Native Americans were just as curious about Europeans. However, they looked at them from afar, discreetly, and without getting in their way.
Both examples are very successful in proving Franklin's point. He takes examples of practices that exist in both ethnic groups. Moreover, he discusses factors that are considered important as markers of civility. Finally, his observations are factually-based.
Benjamin Franklin’s statements about the Native Americans in a way have helped historians shift their views from the colonial representations and describe them in an unbiased way.
Further Explanation:
Colonial history has justified the colonization of the savage Native Americans by portraying them in a typical Oriental discourse, however, Benjamin Franklin’s statements presented them in a new light. He defended the Native Americans by claiming that they had an advanced social and political network, and practiced the earliest forms of democracy, by involving all members of the tribes in various political processes. He said that the lives of the Native Americans were guided by a set of rules and an established code of conduct, which would be equaled in terms of the complexity and sophistication observed in the societies of the colonists.
Franklin puts forward the example of political structures of Native Americans, in the way their councils were organized, where all adult members of the tribe would have equal participation, and the opinions of all people were heard patiently and taken into serious consideration. These councils were extremely organized and functioned in a highly structured and disciplined manner. This is in sharp contrast to the disorderly debates in the British House of Commons, where there were constant disruptions and disorders observed during speeches. Franklin uses another example to highlight the nature of interactions between the colonizers and the Native Americans, who simply had a piqued interest towards these newcomers and therefore wanted to learn more about them, similarly to that of the colonizers, who were required to learn the ways, habits and customs of these people who had inhabited these lands since many years. The Native Americans just had a heightened sense of curiosity, but in no way did it make the colonists feel uncomfortable or threatened in any way.
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Answer Details:
Grade: High School
Chapter: The colonization of America.
Subject: History
Keywords:
Colonization, orientalist viewpoint, colonial history, Native Americans, complex social patterns, organized political structures, interaction with the colonizers.
