Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the United States. He was an author, scientist, inventor, politician, diplomat, enslaver, and eventual abolitionist.
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Franklin (1706-1790) was born in Boston Massachusetts. Throughout his life, Franklin had a complex relationship with slavery. Despite Franklin's regular correspondence with prominent abolitionists, his publishing of anti-slavery pamphlets, and public condemnation of slavery, he was still an enslaver. Franklin, in his young age, had seven enslaved servants and took many of them with him on his regular trips to Europe. As the owner of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin allowed for advertisements for runaway slaves.
However, Franklin's stance shifted as he aged, and as he was exposed to Quaker writings and influenced by abolitionists like Anthony Benezet, who co-founded the Abolition Society and started the first free school for African Americans. After Franklin’s exposure to the school, he wrote that slavery, negative environments, and a lack of education were the factors that led to African American’s shortcomings and that there was no difference in ability to learn between white and black children.
Moreover, his opinions once again shifted towards abolition when John Waring, a London clergyman, established a school for the enslaved in Philadelphia. Franklin even wrote that he regretted his past opinions and prejudice. In the latter half of his life, Franklin became far more resolute in publicly opposing slavery. He published Quaker pamphlets that condemned slavery, and he condemned slavery in private correspondence. He began the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery in 1787, wrote an "Address to the Public " condemning slavery and sent a petition to Congress to end slavery in 1789. Franklin died just two months after this petition was sent on April 17, 1790.
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January 17, 1706
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April 17, 1790
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