Benjamin Franklin is famous for several reasons but being an abolitionist is not usually one of them. In this fictional discussion between an American, and Englishman, and a Scotchman (a person from Scotland), Franklin takes the anti-slavery discussion in another way, not of religion or of the social bonds of slavery. Keep in mind that this is written in 1770, and the Revolution is close at hand. Talk of liberty and freedom are at the center of this argument. How does he use the colonies’ disagreements with Britain in this piece to speak against slavery?
"A Conversation Between an Englishman, A Scotchman, and an American, on the Subject of Slavery
Englishman: There are no People upon Earth that are such enemies to Liberty, such absolute Tyrants, where you have the Opportunity, as you yourselves are.
American: Those who do keep Slaves, all are not Tyrants and Oppressors. Many treat their slaves with great humanity, and provide full as well for them in sickness and in health, as your poor laboring people in England are provided for. Your working poor are a little like slaves, where the laws oblige them to work for their masters so many hours at such a rate, and leave them no liberty to demand or bargain for more, but imprison them in a workhouse if they refuse to work on such terms; and even imprison a humane Master if he thinks fit to pay them better. This you have not only done and continue to do, but several laws heretofore made in our Colonies, to discourage the importation of slaves, by laying a heavy duty, payable by the importer, have been disapproved and repealed by your Government here, as being prejudicial, forsooth, to the interest of the African Company...
A white man is as liable to suffer death for killing a slave, though his own, as for any other homicide. Perhaps you imagine the Negro a mild-tempered people. The majority are of a plotting disposition, dark, sullen, malicious, revengeful, and cruel in the highest degree. Your merchants and mariners who bring them from Africa, often find this in the insurrections of the slaves on board the ships , who kill all when they get the upper hand. Indeed, many of the villains in your own country, are sold off as punishment
Englishman: Your laws for the government of your white Servants are almost as severe as those for the Negroes.
American: In some colonies, they are so, those particularly to which you send your Convicts. But the villains you transport and sell to us must be ruled with a rod of Iron
Scotchman: You should not say we force the Convicts upon you. You know you may, if you please, refuse to buy them.
American: There are still a number of imprudent people who are tempted to buy them
Scotchman: These convicts from Scotland are not slaves
American: There is slavery in your mines. All the wretches that dig coal for you, in those dark Caverns under the ground, are absolute slaves by your law, and their children after them, and from the time they first carry a basket to the end of their days.
Englishman: What is then your definition of a slave?
American: A slave, according to my notion, is a human stolen, taken by force, or bought of another or of himself, with money; and who being so taken or bought, is compelled to serve the purchaser.
Englishman: I agree to that definition, but surely, surely, you will not say there are any such slaves in England?
American: Yes, many thousands, if an English sailor or soldier is well described in that definition. The sailor is often forced into service, torn from all his natural connections. The soldier generally bought in the first place; his master may sell his service, if he pleases, to any foreign prince. English slavery goes beyond that exercised in America
Englishman: What is that?
American: We cannot command a slave of ours to do an immoral or wicked action. We cannot oblige him, for instance, to commit murder."
Definitions
Heretofore: up to now
forsooth: indeed
Englishman: There are no People upon Earth that are such enemies to Liberty, such absolute Tyrants, where you have the Opportunity, as you yourselves are.
American: Those who do keep Slaves, all are not Tyrants and Oppressors. Many treat their slaves with great humanity, and provide full as well for them in sickness and in health, as your poor laboring people in England are provided for. Your working poor are a little like slaves, where the laws oblige them to work for their masters so many hours at such a rate, and leave them no liberty to demand or bargain for more, but imprison them in a workhouse if they refuse to work on such terms; and even imprison a humane Master if he thinks fit to pay them better. This you have not only done and continue to do, but several laws heretofore made in our Colonies, to discourage the importation of slaves, by laying a heavy duty, payable by the importer, have been disapproved and repealed by your Government here, as being prejudicial, forsooth, to the interest of the African Company...
A white man is as liable to suffer death for killing a slave, though his own, as for any other homicide. Perhaps you imagine the Negro a mild-tempered people. The majority are of a plotting disposition, dark, sullen, malicious, revengeful, and cruel in the highest degree. Your merchants and mariners who bring them from Africa, often find this in the insurrections of the slaves on board the ships , who kill all when they get the upper hand. Indeed, many of the villains in your own country, are sold off as punishment
Englishman: Your laws for the government of your white Servants are almost as severe as those for the Negroes.
American: In some colonies, they are so, those particularly to which you send your Convicts. But the villains you transport and sell to us must be ruled with a rod of Iron
Scotchman: You should not say we force the Convicts upon you. You know you may, if you please, refuse to buy them.
American: There are still a number of imprudent people who are tempted to buy them
Scotchman: These convicts from Scotland are not slaves
American: There is slavery in your mines. All the wretches that dig coal for you, in those dark Caverns under the ground, are absolute slaves by your law, and their children after them, and from the time they first carry a basket to the end of their days.
Englishman: What is then your definition of a slave?
American: A slave, according to my notion, is a human stolen, taken by force, or bought of another or of himself, with money; and who being so taken or bought, is compelled to serve the purchaser.
Englishman: I agree to that definition, but surely, surely, you will not say there are any such slaves in England?
American: Yes, many thousands, if an English sailor or soldier is well described in that definition. The sailor is often forced into service, torn from all his natural connections. The soldier generally bought in the first place; his master may sell his service, if he pleases, to any foreign prince. English slavery goes beyond that exercised in America
Englishman: What is that?
American: We cannot command a slave of ours to do an immoral or wicked action. We cannot oblige him, for instance, to commit murder."
Definitions
Heretofore: up to now
forsooth: indeed