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Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
Franklin still had tomatoes on his face from all those who spurned his attempts to keep the colonies and Mother England on friendly terms. This seemed a lot like his work with preventing a civil war in Pennsylvania over the Paxton Boys invasion of Philadelphia who were bent on murdering 140 civilized Indians as well as the Quakers who supported these families. The Quakers whose religion stressed pacifism set aside their beliefs and would meet force with force. They took up arms against the Paxton Boys who had killed six unarmed Indians on December 14, 1763 and two weeks later murdered another fourteen Christian unarmed Indians who were hiding from the Boys in a workhouse. Religion and culture mingled in this growing conflict as the Paxton backwoodsmen were mainly Presbyterians and German Lutherans. Franklin took the side of the Quakers and their defense of their Indian charges and wrote a pamphlet entitled "A Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County." A Narrative of the Late Massacres » The History Carper Paxton Boys - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
On February 5/6, 1764 at midnight, Governor John Penn with his counselors in
tandem hid from the Paxton Boys in Franklin's home. Penn even offered Franklin command of the militia which he declined. Governor Penn then sent Franklin and six others to
formally negotiate with the Paxton Boys. Surely this gave Franklin a
tinge of pride. Not for long though as Penn agreed to meet with representatives of the Paxton Boys and promptly took up their cause as they seemed to him to offer him a larger block of potential voters. Franklin was
tipsy with rage as Governor John Penn also offered a bounty for any Indian scalps.