Question

In at least 100 words , explain the reason Franklin included the interaction between Conrad Weiser and the Native American in “remarks concerning the savages of North America”

Answer 1

He was trying to show the view of the Native Americans from a peer's experiences. He believed that the clash between the whites and Native Americans was because they didn't respect each other's customs and beliefs. Franklin wanted to give the Native Americans a voice.  The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors, when old, counselors; for all their government is by counsel of the sages; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory, the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse 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