Benjamin Franklin: “Exporting of Felons to the Colonies”

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

For much of his life, Benjamin Franklin was a Loyalist—that is, he was faithful to the colonies' mother country, Great Britain—and he often urged those who were angry at Great Britain to restrain their emotions and to work within that nation's governing system. By 1751 Franklin's mind was shifting toward rebellion. He was not only a powerful thinker but also a versatile one who would shift his views when he believed facts required him to do so. “Exporting of Felons to the Colonies,” written in the form of a letter to the Pennsylvania Gazette, is a satire that reveals how unhappy Franklin had become with Great Britain's policies in the American colonies. The letter shows the influence of Jonathan Swift, who was the greatest satirist in the English language in the 1700s and, like Franklin, was very critical of Great Britain's policies toward its subjects. In this letter Franklin pretends to thank Great Britain for sending its most vile criminals to live in the American colonies while actually elaborating on an analogy that displays his anger toward the British policy of exporting criminals to America, where they prey on Americans. Franklin signs this satire “Americanus” to imply that he speaks for all Americans in protesting a policy that is detrimental and even hateful to Americans.

Franklin cites as inspiration for his satire an article in the Pennsylvania Gazette in which the British Parliament cites its reason for voiding a law forbidding the transportation of criminals from Britain to the American colonies, as “such Laws are against the Publick Utility, as they tend to prevent the IMPROVEMENT and WELL PEOPLING of the Colonies.” Franklin suggests that Americans should show their gratitude by capturing rattlesnakes and sending them to England, especially to government officials, to improve Britain the same way Britain improves America by sending human rattlesnakes. Franklin notes that Great Britain would get the better of the deal because America receives criminals who rape and give venereal disease to daughters, stab wives, corrupt and kill sons, and slit the throats of husbands as well as commit burglaries, shoplifting, and robbery, whereas all rattlesnakes do is bite and kill only an occasional child. On the other hand, the rattlesnakes would be educational, because they could help British gentry better “learn to creep, and to insinuate, and to slaver, and to wriggle into Place (and perhaps to poison such as stand in their Way).”