An Address to the Public

Benjamin Franklin, Nov. 9, 1789

Pages 189-190 

Benjamin Franklin, although he had owned slaves, including Peter, he eventually saw the horrors of slavery and took on the mission of proving to the world that slavery was unjust and attempted to stop it. He even remarked: “Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils” (Page 189).  

 

Benjamin Franklin

I found it interesting how he basically pre-empted Social Darwinism by saying “The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affection of his heart” (Page 190). It is for reasons such as this, that he proposes a new plan. “Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty, which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing on our labours, we have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan, and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence” (Page 189). 

Then, Franklin begins bashing slavery, saying it “is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils” (Page 189). He even slightly shows his emotions of slavery by explaining some of what slaves feel. This is quite interesting because you would most already know what slaves are going through and simply don’t care. By doing this, Franklin appeals to their ethos. “Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme labour, age, and disease” (Page 190). He then believes because they are so “accustomed” to this horrible lifestyle that it isn’t within their power to change or even want to change. “Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society” (Page 190).  

 

Slave: Am I Not a Man and a Brother?

Franklin knows it would be difficult to have the whole country accept freeing all of the slaves overnight, so he at least hopes to raise awareness of the issue. “Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national policy; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities” (Page 190). Not only is emancipation, what Franklin is proposing, a very radical idea for the time, he even goes on to say that it will help the national public good of society. “To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures” (Page 190). As Ms. Quosigk would say, “Whoa!” What a powerful statement. It’s a wonder Franklin wasn’t assassinated for this hugely radical idea. The last paragraph is simply asking the general public to make donations to help their cause, which really makes me wonder how many people donated, and if so how much.