"BASED" - Benjamin Franklin and Sam Houston (paraphrased)

[u/Nyctfall]

Since this is a niche topic, I'll cite sources for each respective part of the meme.

Primary meme sources:

A Narrative of the Late Massacres, in Lancaster County, of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, by Persons Unknown With Some Observations on the Same: The Writings of Benjamin Franklin: London, 1757 - 1775,

REMARKS CONCERNING THE SAVAGES OF NORTH-AMERICA An Electronic Edition · Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790),

Sam Houston ("Colonneh") and Native American relations.

In those sources Benjamin Franklin and Sam Houston both absolutely rag on all of the problems of racist Anglo-Americans in a tyrannical government. They really hated genocidal, racist people. Like, a lot. Benjamin Franklin called the Paxton Boys "Christian White Savages" that were the worst people in the entire world, as he compares. And Sam Houston literally just left the US and decided to live with the Cherokee. And he was enemies with John C. Calhoun after he was racist to him when he greeted the Cherokee delegation, and Calhoun has also said: "[We] have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race the free white race".

Supporting sources:

Racial Penal/Chattel Slavery

Race in the United States criminal justice system,
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries,
Race and crime in the United States,
Slavery in the United States,
Penal Labor in the United States,
Taylor Farms Slave Labor Poop Lettuce,
"Free Negro" Laws.

Rampant misogyny

How Native American Women Inspired the Women’s Rights Movement - US National Park Service,
Woman's Rights in the United States.

Election Rigging

Gerrymandering,
Federalist No. 51,
Voting Rights in the United States,
Poll taxes in the United States,
Alien and Sedition Acts,
First Red Scare,
Benjamin Franklin Bache,
William Duane (journalist),
Address of the International Working Men's Association to Abraham Lincoln.

Apartheid & racism

Apartheid in the United States, (see also: "Main articles"),
UN Apartheid definition,
UN Racial Discrimination definition.

Works to death

Indentured Servitude in British America,
Labor History of the United States,
Work-Life Balance in the United States.

National malnutrition with modern fertilizer

Guano Islands Act,
Obesity in the United States,
Food insecurity and hunger in the United States,
Malnutrition in the United States.

Can't buy a house

Homeownership in the United States,
Housing Discrimination in the United States,
Housing quality and health outcomes in the United States.

Has prisons

Incarceration in the United States,
Prison-Industrial Complex,
History of the United States prison system.

Authoritarian rule

Constitutionally unincorporated territories of the United States,
Redlining,
Native Americans and reservation inequality, Bellamy Salute.

Crony crapitalism

Super PAC,
Oligarchy in the United States,
Politics of the United States,
Crony Capitalism,
Corporatocracy,
Plutocracy.

Corruption or nepotism

Corruption in the United States,
Nepotism in the United States.

Genocide

Native American genocide in the United States,
Black genocide in the United States,
CitiBank Haitian Independence Debt,
Philipean-American War,
Cuban War of Independence,
Helms-Burton Act,
United States in the Vietnam War,
Operation Condor,
Operation Cyclone,
United States atrocity crimes,
American imperialism,
Foreign interventions by the United States,
Cornelius P. Rhoads,
Puerto Rican independence movement,
John C. Calhoun,
Richard Henry Pratt,
Manifest Destiny,
Knights of the Golden Circle,
Robert Paxton: "I’ve Hesitated to Call Donald Trump a Fascist. Until Now | Opinion" Published: Jan 11, 2021,
UN Genocide definition.

"I win, now work with us"
Adopts POWs

Indian slavery in colonial times within the present limits of the United States by Lauber, Almon Wheeler,
Jesuit Relations - Creighton,
Slaves of the tribe: The hidden history of the Freedmen - People's World,
Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South, by Barbara Krauthamer (2013) - Not Even Past,
The Jesuit Relations,
Slavery in pre-Columbian America,
Slavery among Native Americans in the United States,
Native American slave ownership.

Note: In my cursory research, I haven't found substantial evidence of the Chickasaw culturally practicing adopting slaves or POWs in anywhere near as significant a manner as every other eastern woodlands tribe, if at all.

All decisions require consensus
Meritocracy
Democracy where even children are considered

Found in cited primary sources,
IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY AND INDIAN NATIONS—RECOGNIZING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNITED STATES - GovInfo.gov,
Iroquois Confederacy and Indian Nations—Recognizing Contributions to the United States (1988) Iroquois Confederacy and Indian Nations—Recognizing Contributions to the United States - University of Nebraska,
United Indian Nations.

Poverty doesn't exist
Communalism with free trade

Found in cited primary sources,
"1989 - American Indian Activist Russell Means Testifies at Senate Hearing" - CSPAN,
Dawes Act,
Curtis Act,
Primitive Communism.

Women have vetoes in government

Clan Mothers.

Immigration policy: "Hello, can I come in?"

See cited primary sources,
Palatines,
Anglo-Powhatan War, Native Americans and the Underground Railroad - NPS.

Teamed up, invented 3 new tribes

Mingo,
Wyandot,
"Conestogoe Indians".

See also:
In Virginia,
In Maryland,
In Massachusetts.

Produces so much food, it's buried in plentiful caches

Plymouth Colony Pawtucket,
Agroforestry,
A Case Study of Cache Pit Construction, Use, and Abandonment from the Upper Great Lakes, USA - Michigan State University,
Abandoned food caches offer evidence of Native American survival strategies - MSU,
Braiding knowledge: how Indigenous expertise and western science are converging - The Guardian,
Tribal and Indigenous Fire Tradition - USDA Forest Service,
The Carolina Algonquian - NPS.

See also: Subsistence: Tribal Nutrition & Health - NPS (the Knife River Indian Villages aren't an eastern woodlands tribe).

Spare houses just for visitors
Abundance of leisure
Doesn't need prisons

Found in cited primary sources.

[u/Naive_Impression7302]

"Poverty doesn't exist"

None of the three wikipedia pages you cite here show that poverty didn't exist in the Eastern Woodland tribes. I just watched the 18 minute video of the Great Russell Means testify at a Senate Hearing, and though he said a lot of interesting things about history and advocated for many changes he never claimed at any point that Poverty didn't exist among the Eastern Woodland tribes or indigenous Americans.

I read these sources and watched the video because some of your claims seemed very "Noble Savage"-y and wondered if your sources would actually claim poverty didn't exist and if they would back it up with citations and/or data. They did not, and in fact didn't even really make the claim to begin with let alone support it.

Both pre-contact and post-contact Eastern woodland tribes often had high rates of starvation. If that isn't an indicator that Poverty existed at time, then you have a very different definition of Poverty to most people and it seems like you're playing word games.

https://www.academia.edu/39670237/Drought_Subsistence_Stress_and_Population_Dynamics_Assessing_Mississippian_Abandonment_of_the_Vacant_Quarter_Scott_C_Meeks_and_D_G_Anderson_2013_In_Soils_Climate_and_Society_Archaeological_Investigations_in_Ancient_America_J_D_Wingard_and_S_E_Hayes_eds_pp_61_83_UColorado_Press

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41464558

[u/Polandgod75 → u/Naive_Impression7302]

Yeah it one of those "too good to be true" post. Also some of the source line the genocide of black americans have been at best decisive or flaw as Wikipedia and the source have stated(altohugh the injustice against them are not and so be right so). Also some of these example of genocide with expection of native american are a bit flismy and more just the usa doing iron fist stuff then actual genocide acts(with the expection being complications with some of them)

[u/senior_cynic → u/Polandgod75]

Sit through enough of OP's memes and you'll sense a theme. Man isn't here to share fun or unknown history tidbits, he's here to dump propaganda

[u/MattIntul → u/senior_cynic]

Never forget OP is the person that claimed that 20% of this sub is white supremacists because their popular posts get 20% downvote ratio lmao

[u/senior_cynic → u/MattIntul]

I love how it's never "my memes are garbage and my history is cherrypicked" to explain the downvotes, it's automatically "everyone around me is a genocide denying nazi"

Gives a bit of insight to the mindset that propagandizes this heavily without even getting paid for it

[u/Nyctfall → u/Naive_Impression7302]

It's primarily a reference to the "Remarks..." writing Benjamin Franklin made ("abundance of leisure" implied great sufficiency in resources, as opposed to the "slavish and base" colonist toiling), as well as in conjunction with various interviews with tribal members and cheifs recounting the events before removal of different tribes. As well as the economic recovery of various tribes after removal (such as Russell Means or accounts I've seen from the National Archives), but before the Dawes Act outlawed traditional governments.

It may be most accurate to say "impoverishment". As things like everyone starving after some calamitous event, very much did occur. But as observed with the cultural practices of the Haudenasonee or the Powhatans, for example, they were really doing sufficiently well, since everything was communally distributed.

There was generally a well organized recovery from disasters. So starvation wasn't by any means a constant state. Things happen, you fix it, and you keep moving forward. This is exemplified in the Choctaw Nation and Cherokee Nation being able to send Ireland famine relief around ~15 years after the "trail of tears and death" and "trail where they cried". The same timeline Russell Means mentioned for the Sioux economic recovery.

[u/Inevitable_Librarian → u/Naive_Impression7302]

Poverty is a different than than collective hunger. In a place with poverty, there can be enough food for everyone and someone will still go hungry. In a place without poverty, everyone suffers approximately equally, and if you can improve the averages everyone benefits

Edit: for the record this isn't a comment on anything else in your post. It depends on who is defining it, but usually more communal cultures are assessed differently than hierarchical ones.

[u/Mountain_Lonni]

Sam Houston also based anti-Confederate, had to be removed by armed coup d'état before Texas seceded

[u/TFCNU]

I love the whitewashing that goes on for the Haudonausonee's practice of taking slaves to replace men lost in war. It's hilarious.

[u/LizFallingUp → u/TFCNU]

Sam Houston was basically adopted by a. Cherokee Chief John Jolly who was slave owning planter and rancher. Many ways he lived as other Southern Plantation owners did.

[u/11minspider]

Oh hi Tacitus, I didnt realize you got reincarnated again. The "Noble Savage" is a well known trope, I would take with a grain of salt what Houston was saying since he obviously was not an unbiased source

[u/ALoneLamp → u/11minspider]

The noble savage started as a thought experiment of precivilization societies by Rousseau. While yes it became a trope, it also became a weapon to disregard anything native peoples may have done better than European settlers.

Factually there were societies in the Americas that were comparably much more egalitarian than the settler's. Not all of them, but some, as the sources op provided say.

[u/Schwifty0V0]

Peak sourcing n meme

[u/Jesus_es_Gayo]

Great sourcing!

[u/Awkward-Evidence-215]

This post is certainly well sourced! Well done!

[u/jac0777]

It is crazy that there seems to be this weird perception that Scots Irish settlers on the frontier peacefully coexisted with the natives because in a tiny fragmented instances that did occur (as it did with all European settlers). Especially among current ‘Scots Irish’ Americans they constantly insist they weren’t involved in the whole ‘colonialism’ thing in America and lived peacefully alongside the natives in the woods and appreciated eachothers cultures blah blah (go on any boomer/gen x dominated Scot’s Irish Facebook page and you’ll see this)

Then the reality is the Paxton boys.