Franklin Remixed

Ben: Bad Guy, Good Guy

Don’t throw stones at your neighbours, if your own windows are glass.

- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736

By the age of 42, Ben Franklin was a wealthy, white property owner. Like some others of his social class at that time, Franklin had certain prejudices about people who were different from him, like the new German immigrants, Native Americans, and enslaved Africans.  Read on, though, to learn how he changed his mind over the course of his long life.

Are All Men Really Created Equal?

Declaration of Independence, courtesy of American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia

Declaration of Independence

This artifact is the Declaration of Independence that was passed in 1776. This famous document states that all men are created equal. When the Declaration of Independence was written, did the authors mean all free white men or all men in general? We still do not know today what each founding father thought. In the 1700s men like Franklin thought Germans coming to America were bad, even though they were white.

-Sarah S.

Congress Voting Independence

Congress Voting Independence, Begun by Robert Edge Pine and finished by Edward Savage , 1784–1801, courtesy of Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection

Congress Voting Independence

This picture shows the Founding Fathers voting for independence. When you look at this picture closely, you don’t see any people of color. The assembled men are free and were born as British citizens. Ben Franklin is the man sitting in the center of the picture.

-Sarah S., Amanda M.

Slaves for Sale

Page of the Pennsylvania Gazette, with an advertisement in the left column for the sale of a slave. May 2, 1745. printed by Benjamin Franklin. Walter J. and Lenore Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania, Phila

Pennsylvania Gazette, Sale of Slave advertisement, 1745 


During his early adult life, Ben Franklin owned African slaves; many white people did in the 1700s, and not everyone considered it bad. Nowadays, we feel slavery is evil. Ben Franklin owned three slaves—a husband and wife, and a slave who was to be a gift for his wife. When Ben was younger and wasn’t against slavery, he advertised slave sales in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. In the newspaper displayed above from 1745, the third ad in the left column is for “a Likely Negroe Man, and two young Negroe women.”

- Aaya K.

Opposing Slavery

Am I Not a Man and a Brother? (anti-slavery medallion), Josiah Wedgwood, ca. 1787, courtesy of American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia

Am I Not a Man and a Brother? (anti-slavery medallion)

This medallion relates to our big idea and theme because it shows that Ben Franklin, a slave owner for over forty years, eventually became opposed to slavery. It helps us to tell the story of how Ben changed his views of slaves. He became President of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society in the year 1787. The medallion was a very common symbol that the Abolitionists used when they were fighting against slavery.

-Aaya K.

Native American Massacre

Cover, Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County of a Number of Indians, Benjamin Franklin, 1764, courtesy of Collection of the Rosenbach Museum & Library

 

Cover, Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County of a Number of Indians

Native Americans struggled against white invaders of their lands throughout Benjamin Franklin’s time in the Americas. Benjamin Franklin was not unlike many of his fellow white landowners who thought less of Native Americans. Over time, however, Franklin realized that Native Americans were just as human as he was. This cover of a pamphlet about the Paxton Boys was written and printed by Benjamin Franklin in the year 1764.

 

-Amanda M.

 

Lifesaver

Title page, Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County of a Number of Indians, Benjamin Franklin, 1764, courtesy of Collection of the Rosenbach Museum & Library

Title page, Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County of a Number of Indians

This is a page of the pamphlet about the Paxton Boys, written and printed by Benjamin Franklin in the year 1764. The Paxton Boys were a group of white men who wanted to avenge the deaths of other white men who were killed by Native Americans. Benjamin Franklin realized that this was a pointless response and would only cause more deaths. He told the Paxton Boys that there was no need to kill Native Americans.

-Amanda M.