Benjamin Franklin purportedly said the eagle design for the Great Seal of the settlers’ new country looked more like a turkey. And a turkey would have been a better choice, said Ben. In a rather smart-alecky letter in 1784, Ben Franklin wrote:

For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours…

Franklin ought to have said turkeys populated the Americas (because Ocellated turkeys are native to Central America). Franklin might well have noted that people of European ancestry weren’t true orginal natives either. They seemed to show up “in all countries” as well!

Franklin continued:

…the first of the species seen in Europe being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and served up at the wedding table of Charles the ninth.

So Franklin knew about the turkeys of Canada, from whence priests snatched the birds and shipped them off to be consumed by Charles IX (pictured), the 16th-century mass slaughterer of Protestant Christians who, reportedly haunted by these killings, succumbed to tuberculosis, aged 23.

Franklin went on with the turkey story:

….He is besides (though a little vain and silly tis true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.

So Ben Franklin thought the turkeys would deem the British military — and not the turkey-keeping farmer — as the opressor … actually insulting turkeys, not admiring them.

Indeed, Franklin thought actual turkeys made good experimental subjects for electrocution and cooking, thereby laying the foundation for the invention of the electric oven.

The settlers weren’t the first to confine and domesticate free-living turkeys.

Some indigenous groups domesticated turkeys more than 2,000 years ago, to have access to their flesh for food, feathers for tools and ceremonial dress, and down for blankets. Here’s → Audubon.org saying domestication showed how much Native Americans valued the birds (but not on the birds’ terms).

Today, because cougars and wolves have been exterminated in the eastern United States, New Englanders call the presence of free-roaming turkeys a wildlife management issue. (Sounds familiar?)

Moreover, these naturally confident birds have become habituated by people putting out birdfeeders.

Biologists urge people to stop manipulating the turkeys through food.

And vegans urge people to stop manipulating the turkeys for food. 

The struggle continues.

This week, may we all give thanks for nature in its free state. Instead of the so-called traditions of consuming commercialized flesh or even rolling our eyes at those same worn-out turkey jokes, may we create refuges of respect. And if we need to take refuge ourselves, so be it. People who love us will get over it, or they’ll understand.

My gratitude is with you, dear friends. Love and liberation,

Lee. 

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References: From Benjamin Franklin to Sarah Bache (26 January 1784), Founders Online, National Archives; and as linked. Charles IX painting by François Clouet (public domain). Banner photo of free-living turkeys in Pennsylvania taken by Lee Hall.