This morning we had presentations by two esteemed speakers at College Hall here on the campus of Penn. The first was a “lively” speaker who spoke about Benjamin Franklin and his attitudes/behaviors towards slavery. I found it interesting that he pointed out that Franklin was a runaway indentured servant. I knew he ran away, but didn’t know that he was an indentured servant – I just thought he worked for his brother. The basis of Dr. Waldstreicher’s argument was that Franklin is often portrayed as an abolitionist, but this wasn’t always his true belief. In the 1750s the Pennsylvania Gazette (Franklin’s paper) sold between 45 – 50 ads a week for slaves or servants at 5 shillings each. Also, Franklin never actually freed any slaves. Franklin’s ownership of slaves came from mortality or runaways.
Our second speaker was Dr. Bob (never did catch that last name) who spoke about the Great American Slave Rebellion. According to this professor one great myth is that Lincoln freed the slaves, but rather they freed themselves. They ran away, carried out a quiet profit driven rebellion, and join in the army. These ideas were all very new to me, and I was fascinated by them. I also appreciated that he didn’t act condescending that these were new ideas to many of us.
This afternoon was a time for self-guided tours. We saw Elfreth’s Alley (the oldest continually inhabited street in the U.S.) which was just charming. They had a cell phone tour which I thought was really cool. I found a vacation home to buy – I’m sure I can afford it. We ate at City Tavern, saw Christ Church cemetery and another stop at the Betsy Ross’ house.
Classroom Application:
When I discuss the underground railroad and slavery with my kids I will bring up this very interesting topic on the slave rebellion. I also think that the kids would find this additional information on Franklin interesting.
Flickr/marie.schwager
YouTube/schwagerm
Blog/Marie Schwager
Library Thing/schwager
2 Comments
June 13, 2008 at 1:29 am
Marie,
Your blog was very interesting! It’s amazing how many different things we each pick up on. I’d forgotten about the money generated from ads in
Ben Franklin’s newspapers. Quite a contradiction, isn’t it? I, too, was surprised when the speaker talked about Franklin being an indentured servant. I actually did know that but had forgotten that fact. Amazing how these things come out!
Donna
June 14, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hi Mrs. Schwager!
Yes we definitely heard some new view ponts! I would contend that the noncooperation, the joining of the army, and the spying for the Union may not have been possible with a different man in the White House.
Mr. Z