Benjamin Franklin Informative Essay

833 Words4 Pages

Skyler Charles
Annotated Bibliography
9/27/2015
Dr. Marschalk
_____________Benjamin Franklin and His Undisclosed Stance of Slavery___________

Benjamin Franklin may not have always held the same stance on the topic of slavery. According to a few sources I have discovered that, although he was pro-slave selling in his business life, he did not feel strongly about it in his personal life. Franklin did not consider slaves to have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Contrary to this hes was widely considered the father of freedom. Franklin was a continued spokesman of free white men for the majority of his life.

Summary

Waldstreicher, David. "Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and The Founders." Common-place: Ask the Author. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 June 2015. .

This article asks us if Franklin was truly a leader in the abolishment of slavery or simply just a bandwagon member. According to Waldstreicher most people view franklins political stand points in reverse because he owned slaves for so long. Probably the most hypocritical thing Franklin did in his life was own slaves while he was fighting for their independence. In 87’ Franklin’s abolitionist society asked him to bring the topic of slavery to the …show more content…

“Free Negroes were generally improvident and poor. I think they are not deficient in natural understanding, but they have not the advantage of education. They make good musicians. Franklin is simply saying that the negro people were not less than human because they could not read nor write it was because they were taught neither before being freed therefore they cannot function productively in a humanitarian society.” She also suggests noting that he eventually became the president of the Penn Anti-Slavery Society. Lady Reid appears to be defending Franklin and wants us to forgive him for his stance on slavery for most of his life. Does his pre death disposition make his past life