A long road to abolitionism : Benjamin Franklin's transformation on slavery

This thesis is a detailed examination of the evolution of Benjamin Franklin's views on slavery. Beginning in the late 1750s and continuing through the 1770s, as his political views of the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain gradually shifted, Franklin began to oppose slavery, supporting a school for former enslaved people and writing, mostly in private, about his opposition to the practice. During the final period of Franklin’s life, from 1787 until the last weeks of his life in 1790, Franklin made his opposition to the practice of slavery public, serving as the head of an abolitionist society in the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, publishing articles and letters opposing the system and encouraging Congress to ban slavery. By the end of his life, Franklin intensely opposed slavery. In other words, Franklin's views on slavery were not static, but constantly evolved alongside his political economy. Two points in particular standout: one is how Franklin’s half-way approach to opposing slavery was transformed into outright opposition by the time of his death. His attempts to abolish slavery across the nation and, in contrast with most other abolitionists of the period, his support for racial integration consumed the very last weeks of his life. The other point is that, although the details are often murky and incomplete, Franklin appears to have been a slave owner through most of his life, including into his final years.