Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

===Coming of revolution===
In 1763, soon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as [[Pontiac's Rebellion]]. The [[Paxton Boys]], a group of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] raids, murdered a group of peaceful [[Susquehannock]] Indians and marched on Philadelphia.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=209–216}} Franklin helped to organize a local militia to defend the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the [[racism|racial prejudice]] of the Paxton Boys. "If an ''Indian'' injures me," he asked, "does it follow that I may revenge that injury on all ''Indians''?"<ref>Franklin, Benjamin. [http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/massacre.htm "A Narrative of the Late Massacres&nbsp;..."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427070508/http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/massacre.htm |date=April 27, 2006 }} reprinted on The History Carper.</ref><ref name=":01scratch">{{cite book | last=Calloway|first= C. G. | date=2006 | title=The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America | chapter=4 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-530071-0}}</ref>

He provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of [[Surveillance art|counter-surveillance and manipulation]]. "He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda."<ref>{{cite journal| last=Crews| first= Ed| title= Spies and Scouts, Secret Writing, and Sympathetic Citizens| journal= Colonial Williamsburg Journal| url=http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/Summer04/spies.cfm| date=Summer 2004| access-date=April 19, 2009}}</ref>