> but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly ..
Some people can't help themselves from bringing irrelevant facts to the conversation.
Some people can't help themselves from bringing irrelevant facts to the conversation.
Pretending like these things can be separated is ignorance. Ignoring its brutality does a disservice to our history and that man's legacy
Ben Franklin was one of the greatest minds worldwide of the 18th century. Odds are, even without slavery, he would have contributed just as much as he did with slavery. It's not like he made his money working slaves to the bone in a field and couldn't turn a profit without slavery.
He was a publisher. A few slaves were involved but they were largely incidental to the business. As in, he could have easily paid John and Sam a wage instead of paying to feed and house Peter and George and the business would be entirely unaffected
I think it's because, in his own calculus, he believed he needed to desecrate human beings, destroy their families, and humiliate their dignity to maintain his greatness.
I don't think you really have any basis for that analysis of franklins psychology. If anything, I think the safe assumption is just that for most of his life slavery was there and people don't always question every part of society.
Them facts you were looking for: https://share.google/J4zlTt102nc81Fhay
I think it's a sound analysis, he was a thoughtful and philosophical man who considered the nature of slavery heavily, and he benefitted from it greatly, and dearly understood its terrible nature, and continued it's cruelty, and freed no one.