How Does Benjamin Franklin Remove To America
National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox
Making the Revolution: America, 1763-1791
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Library of Congress
Benjamin Franklin
Bowles's New and Accurate Map of the World
oil portrait by J.S. Duplessis, 1778
London, 1780 (inset detail
*
“People do not inquire . . . What is he? But What does he do?”
__Benjamin Franklin__
Information to Those Who Would Remove to America
1782, EXCERPTS
Benjamin Franklin spent almost one third of his life in Europe serving as a diplomat for the American colonies (seventeen years in
England) and for the United States (nine years in France). While there, he often published letters and essays to explain America and its people to Europeans⎯primarily to rid them of misconceptions and what Franklin …show more content…
Atheism is unknown there, Infidelity rare & secret, so that Persons may live to a great Age in that Country without having their Piety shock’d by meeting with either an Atheist or an
Infidel. And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his Approbation [approval] of the mutual
Forbearance and Kindness with which the different Sects treat each other, by the remarkable Prosperity with which he has been pleased to favor the whole Country.
16
In a traditional English ballad, a place of luxury and ease; later ascribed to North Carolina, as a land of laziness, by Virginian William Byrd in his 1728
History of the Dividing Line.
In French literature, a mythical land of plenty and idleness.
18
Emboldening added.
19
Accession of Strangers: emigration of foreigners.
20
I.e., those that can easily be fabricated in a rough form and thus would not need to be imported from Europe.
21
I.e., without suffering humiliation in low-status work (as in Europe, Franklin implies).
17
National Humanities Center Benjamin Franklin, Information to Those Who Would Remove to America, 1782, excerpts
Making the Revolution: America, 1763-1791
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Library of Congress
Benjamin Franklin
Bowles's New and Accurate Map of the World
oil portrait by J.S. Duplessis, 1778
London, 1780 (inset detail
*
“People do not inquire . . . What is he? But What does he do?”
__Benjamin Franklin__
Information to Those Who Would Remove to America
1782, EXCERPTS
Benjamin Franklin spent almost one third of his life in Europe serving as a diplomat for the American colonies (seventeen years in
England) and for the United States (nine years in France). While there, he often published letters and essays to explain America and its people to Europeans⎯primarily to rid them of misconceptions and what Franklin …show more content…
Atheism is unknown there, Infidelity rare & secret, so that Persons may live to a great Age in that Country without having their Piety shock’d by meeting with either an Atheist or an
Infidel. And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his Approbation [approval] of the mutual
Forbearance and Kindness with which the different Sects treat each other, by the remarkable Prosperity with which he has been pleased to favor the whole Country.
16
In a traditional English ballad, a place of luxury and ease; later ascribed to North Carolina, as a land of laziness, by Virginian William Byrd in his 1728
History of the Dividing Line.
In French literature, a mythical land of plenty and idleness.
18
Emboldening added.
19
Accession of Strangers: emigration of foreigners.
20
I.e., those that can easily be fabricated in a rough form and thus would not need to be imported from Europe.
21
I.e., without suffering humiliation in low-status work (as in Europe, Franklin implies).
17
National Humanities Center Benjamin Franklin, Information to Those Who Would Remove to America, 1782, excerpts