A Colony of Aliens

Resource for Grades 7-12

A Colony of Aliens

Media Type:
Video

Running Time: 0m 46s
Size: 17.1 MB

or


Source: Faces of America: "A Colony of Aliens"

Learn more about Faces of America.

Resource Produced by:

WNET

Collection Developed by:

WNET

Collection Credits

Collection Funded by:

Coca-Cola

Faces of America on VITAL is made possible by The Cola Company.

Funding for Faces of America on PBS was provided by The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson & Johnson. Additional funding was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Atlantic Philanthropies, and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.


In this video from Faces of America, historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. speaks with comedian Stephen Colbert about anti-immigration sentiment present at the time of his German ancestors arrival to the United States. Gates has Colbert read a passage from an objection Benjamin Franklin had to German immigrants settling in Pennsylvania and specifically of his fears that the new German immigrants would “Germanize” the population.

Supplemental Media Available:

A Colony of Aliens Transcript (Document)

open Discussion Questions

  • Briefly summarize what Benjamin Franklin feared. In your opinion were his fears reasonable? Why or why not?
  • Does Franklin's idea sound like anything you’ve heard in the news or observed in your communities regarding immigration today?
  • What do you think of Franklin’s remark about the Germans’ complexion?
  • Do you think this is a distinction which many people would make today?
  • What do you think when you hear similar remarks made about immigrant groups today? Are you able to draw any parallels between Franklin's time and today? Please be specific.

open Transcript

Narration: For a nation formed by immigrants, we’ve not always greeted new arrivals with open arms.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Would you please read what Benjamin Franklin, had to say?

Stephen Colbert: Why would Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to “Germanize” us instead of us “Anglifying” them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion.

Gates: Our complexion.

Colbert: I don’t know why they didn’t build a border wall around Pennsylvania to keep the, to keep the German hombres out.

Gates: I mean, any more than they can acquire our complexion?

Colbert: I assume he’s saying that the Germans are too pale for him.


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