How Does Ben Franklin Use Satire In The Trail Of Miss Polly Baker

In early American History Ben Franklin was known for being a different kind of person. He never followed the rules like everyone else and always “marched to the beat of his own drum”. This difference from everyone else made Franklin a prominent figure in early American society. Franklin also used this to help get his beliefs across subtly. One way he does this is in “The Trail of Miss Polly Baker”. On the surface, this story is just about a women pleading to a jury about the punishments she has been given. People in this society saw this as a little hearted story that was created for entertainment purposes. But if you dive deeper into the text you can see that Ben Franklin is actually using satire to take jabs at how society and the judicial system treats women. In this story he uses satire with a sarcastic tone to help get his point

across to the public. He uses this to try and gain women equal rights and show the cracks in the way the judicial system treats women. This story has a personal connection to Ben Franklin because he had an illegitimate child. This even though is wife adopted the bastard child and treats the child like one of her own, he wants to make sure that these women with illegitimate children are treated like human beings and not just entities that are punished unjustly for one mistake.
One example of this sarcastic satire within the story is when Miss Polly Baker is trying to come up with reasons why she keeps getting fined. She tells the court and jury “nor has any one the least cause of Complaint against me, unless, perhaps the Minister, or the Justice, because I have had Children without being Married, by which they have miss’d a Wedding Fee. But, can even this be a Fault of mine?”. By making her say it like this Franklin is taking a shot at the leadership within the colonies. He is trying to rationalize why women would get fined for having a child out of wedlock. He assumes that the women are getting fined because the government is missing out on money because they do not receive the wedding tax. He is making the rulers and jury sound asinine because he makes it sound like they are fining and punishing women just to get back at them for not getting married and giving them a wedding tax. This causes the leader and court system lose credibility because of the lack of reasoning behind their punishments. Losing this credibility will have disastrous effects because the leaders have a chance that citizens will lose respect thus
Later in the text, Miss Poly Baker calls out the Government for being just as guilty of committing crimes as she is.

“What Numbers of procur’d Abortions! and how many distress’d Mothers have been driven, by the Terror of Punishment and public Shame, to imbrue, contrary to Nature, their own trembling Hands in the Blood of their helpless Offspring! Nature would have induc’d them to nurse it up with a Parent’s Fondness. ’Tis the Law therefore, ’tis the Law itself that is guilty of all these Barbarities and Murders.” Franklin writes this to show that mothers of illegitimate child fear the ridicule and punishments that are handed down from the Government of the colonies and jury. In fact, the mothers are willing to have an abortion to terminate the child in order to skip out on the chastisement. He turns the tables on the jury to make them uncomfortable with bringing down punishments on Miss Baker and other mothers who have children out of wedlock. This type of comment is amazing to me because if something like this were to be said in this day in age, it would be shut down immediately due to the fact that it is not politically

correct.
Another example of satire in “The Trial of Miss Polly Baker” is when she discusses how she was excluded from many church activities.
“You have already excluded me from all the Comforts of your Church Communion: Is not that sufficient? You believe I have offended Heaven, and must suffer eternal Fire: Will not that be sufficient? What need is there, then, of your additional Fines and Whippings? I own, I do not think as you do; for, if I thought, what you call a Sin, was really such, I would not presumptuously commit it. But how can it be believed, that Heaven is angry at my having Children, when, to the little done by me towards it, God has been pleased to add his divine Skill and admirable Workmanship in the Formation of their Bodies, and crown’d it by furnishing them with rational and immortal Souls?”
By saying this Miss Baker is telling the community that it is fine that they do not want her at church, she has already been blessed by God with beautiful children. By Ben Franklin stating this in the story, he is taking a shot at their Christian beliefs and almost calling them out for not being good Christians. In Christianity, people are suppose to be accepting when a person sins and forgive them. But since one of the punishments handed down to Miss Baker is that she is banned from participating in church activities, the community is not practicing what they are preaching. Franklin calls them out for this