Ben Franklin, The Prankster...!

Many things have been written and said about ol' Ben, but here is a bit of trivia you may not know! Ben loved a good hoax!

It's said that Ben always had a good hoax in the works. Being as how his main talent was in writing and printing, he could often pull off things that others couldn't.

Native Indians Sending Scalps to the British

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) is a renowned 18th century philosopher, man of science, and statesman . . . but he was also a prolific hoaxer. From witch trials, and prophesies, to tales of flying kites in thunderstorms, Franklin always had a hoax on the go and in the midst of the American Revolutionary War, Franklin pulled one of his best pranks.

In 1782, a mysterious newspaper called The Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle printed a letter revealing that Indian warriors were being paid by the British to send thousands of American scalps, including those of women and children, to the British royal family and members of parliament as trophies of war. Within days the contents of the letter had reached European shores, where people were obviously horrified.

However, it was all an elaborate trick set up by Franklin. He’d printed the paper himself and handed it out to friends, one of whom had leaked it to a contemporary on the other side of the pond. In truth, the article did its job. Franklin had always intended to turn European opinion against the British in the hope of helping the war effort and he did just that.

You have to respect a man that can pull off a prank of that magnitude, ya know? When you can change the attitude of many folks in a country, you have done something pretty cool!

Coffee on the patio this morning. The temps are supposed to be in the 80's today!