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CCCCL: TO MR. ANTHONY BENEZET, 1 PHILADELPHIA - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. V Letters and Misc. Writings 1768-1772 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. V (Letters and Misc. Writings 1768-1772).

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CCCCL

TO MR. ANTHONY BENEZET,1 PHILADELPHIA

London, 22 August, 1772.

Dear Friend:—

I made a little extract from yours of April 27th, of the number of slaves imported and perishing, with some close remarks on the hypocrisy of this country, which encourages such a detestable commerce by laws for promoting the Guinea trade; while it piqued itself on its virtue, love of liberty, and the equity of its courts, in setting free a single negro. This was inserted in the London Chronicle, of the 20th of June last.

I thank you for the Virginia address, which I shall also publish with some remarks. I am glad to hear that the disposition against keeping negroes grows more general in North America. Several pieces have been lately printed here against the practice, and I hope in time it will be taken into consideration and suppressed by the legislature. Your labors have already been attended with great effects. I hope, therefore you and your friends will be encouraged to proceed. My hearty wishes of success attend you, being ever, my dear friend, yours affectionately,

B. F.

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[1 ]An American philanthropist. In 1767, he wrote a caution to Great Britain and her colonies in a short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions. In 1772, he published Historical Accounts of Guinea; with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and lamentable Effect. This amiable man seemed to have nothing else at heart but the good of his fellow-creatures, and the last act of his life was to take from his desk six dollars for a poor widow.