Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
ethos. Unfortunately, Franklin essentially disregarded the communication,
perhaps too xed within his own culture’s assumptions about female power.
Image 3.26 | Benjamin Franklin, 1767
Artist | David Martin
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain
Image 3.27 | Portrait of a Cherokee Woman
Artist | Edward Troye
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain
3.18.1 Cherokee Indian Women To Pres. Benjamin Franklin,
September 8, 1787
Brother,
I am in hopes my Brothers & the Beloved men near the water side will heare
from me. This day I lled the pipes that they smoaked in piece, and I am in hopes
the smoake has Reached up to the skies above. I here send you a piece of the same
Tobacco, and am in hope you & your Beloved men will smoake it in Friendship—
and I am glad in my heart that I am the mother of men that will smoak it in piece.
Brother,
I am in hopes if you Rightly consider it that woman is the mother of All—and
that woman Does not pull Children out of Trees or Stumps nor out od old Logs,
but out of their Bodies, so that they ought to mind what a woman says, and look
upon her as a mother—and I have Taken the privilege to Speak to you as my own
Children, & the same as if you had sucked my Breast—and I am in hopes you have
a beloved woman amongst you who will help to put her Children Right if they
do wrong, as I shall do the same—the great men have all promised to Keep the
path clear & straight, as my Children shall Keep the path clear & white so that the
Messengers shall go & come in safety Between us—the old people is never done
Talking to their Children—which makes me say so much as I do. The Talk you sent
to me was to talk to my Children, which I have done this day, and they all liked
my Talk well, which I am in hopes you will heare from me Every now & then that I
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