Ben Franklin FEARED These Immigrants

Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father himself, once panicked that immigrants would erase American culture.

By the 1750s, German immigrants were pouring into colonial Pennsylvania, building their own newspapers, churches, and schools, conducting daily life almost entirely in their own language.

Franklin watched the change with real alarm. In a 1751 essay, he demanded to know why the 'Palatine Boors' should be allowed to 'swarm into our settlements' and herd together, establishing their language and manners in place of English ones.

He even warned that Pennsylvania, founded by the English, might be 'Germanized' instead of the Germans being 'Anglified.' One of America's greatest minds genuinely feared the melting pot would melt the wrong way.

Franklin later deleted the ugliest lines, and within a generation or two those German families had blended in completely. The fear that newcomers can never assimilate is as old as America itself.

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