Benjamin Franklin: “Exporting of Felons to the Colonies”

Glossary

• all Commerce implies Return all economic exchanges require that each side gets something
• Clime climate
• debauch’d and pox’d raped and infected with sexually transmitted diseases
• Felons-convict prisoners who have been sentenced for felonies, or serious crimes
• in the Light of in the guise of, or under the pretense of being
• Is not Example more prevalent than Precept? suggestion that experiences in real life are more useful than mere ideas
• Newgates prisons, from the name of a famous prison in London
• Our Mother England, the “mother country”
• Publick Utility usefulness to the public
• Risque risk
• sanguinary bloody or bloodthirsty
• St. James’s Park an area of London near the center of the British government
• such as are adequate to the Favour responses that are worthy of the good grace shown by the British Crown
• suffer allow
• they may possibly change their Natures, if they were to change the Climate they (rattlesnakes) might behave differently in a different location
• Thou shalt bruise his head a quote from Genesis 3:15, in which God condemns the snake in the Garden of Eden
• Transportation removal or deportation, particularly of prisoners
• when the Conveniencies far exceed … when the benefits outweigh the costs