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Busted! It Wasn’t Ben Franklin After All …
For years, decades, I’ve had mixed opinions of Ben Franklin. Participate in independence for America? GOOD. Pay attention to the Six Nations confederacy (Native Americans) around Philadelphia and call them neighbors? GOOD. Acknowledge his illegitimate son? GOOD. (Fathering a child outside a marriage? For his time, NOT GOOD.) Enslavement for profit? BAD. Changing his mind and lifestyle about enslavement: BETTER.
But the two things I’ve most enjoyed saying about Franklin turn out, upon a bit of research, to be (gulp) myths.
For us northern New Englanders, who’ve enjoyed seeing turkeys thrive again in our region in the past 20 years, it’s fun to remind each other that Franklin suggested the turkey as our national bird, instead of its grim carrion-eating cousin the bald eagle.
Wrong!! The Franklin Institute says (https://www.fi.edu/benjamin-franklin/franklin-national-bird):
The story about Benjamin Franklin wanting the National Bird to be a turkey is just a myth. This false story began as a result of a letter Franklin wrote to his daughter criticizing the original eagle design for the Great Seal, saying that it looked more like a…
