25.) Ben Franklin's SCALP HOAX during the Revolutionary War was propaganda to create more hatred towards the Indians.(15 min read )
The Ben Franklin Scalp Hoax of 1782, during the Revolutionary War is probably something you've never heard of. Hughes wrote about it in his 1920s biography of George Washington and cites Stone's biography- the "Life of Joseph Brant" as a source for Ben Franklin's forged letter of his Scalp Hoax. Franklin's forged letter follows at end of this article. The Scalp Hoax consisted of Ben Franklin gathering 1000 scalps, bundled together. Eight of those bundles, invoiced with description, along with his forged letter, are the hoax that Franklin created, to blame the Senecas for it and cause increased hatred towards all Indians. First, quoted passages from Hughes's biography on Washington, about Ben Franklin's Scalp Hoax: "The least noble of Benjamin Franklin's many frivolous deeds was surely the low trick he played when he forged a letter and pretended that it had been captured and that it accompanied a collection of nearly a thouand American scalp...