Existing comment:
As Franklin began to circulate on the world stage, first as an agent representing colonies in England, then as a leader in the American Revolution and finally as a diplomat, he came increasingly into contact with anti-slavery sentiment and his changing views on slavery reflected this. Many of the Enlightenment figures with whom he worked and socialized during his sixteen years in England held anti-slavery views. And when the American colonies declared that "all men are created equal," the irony was not lost on Franklin. He came to believe that slavery was inconsistent with American demands of liberty.
Franklins' transformation into an anti-slavery advocate culmiinated in 1787, when he became the first president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
Franklin waited until after the US Constitution was ratified before presenting a formal abolition petition to Congress, but this effort, only weeks before his death in 1790, was roundly criticized by Southerners in Congress, who fought to have the petition suppressed.
"I received the Letter... with your valuable Present of Cameo's, which I am distributing among my Friends ... I am persuaded it may have an Effect equal to that of the best written Pamphlet, in procuring Favour to those oppressed people."
-- Benjamin Franklin, to Josiah Wedgwood, 1788 |