The Documents

The Development of the American Character

The Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery

• Author: Benjamin Franklin
• Date: 1787
• Document No.: 0453
• Comment: First edition
• Other Resources: Primary Sources on Slavery, Abolition (both via Gilder Lehrman Institute)

Short Description

Franklin composed this document to publicly condemn the horrors of slavery, which he regarded as both economically counterproductive and socially unsustainable. He even introduced a petition to abolish slavery. Regrettably, the U.S. Congress did not act in favor of this effort.

REmnant Trust Description

Statesman, diplomat, inventor, scientist, author, painter, publisher, educationalist, and public servant—one of the most striking figures in American history. Publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanac and elected into the Royal Society in London after his performances with certain electrical experiments, history has often bestowed upon him the title of the “wisest American.” Active for the colonies throughout the Revolution, he helped draft and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He had a sophisticated understanding of economics, warfare, and racial conflict, and recognized that slavery was, on top of everything else, economically counterproductive and socially unsustainable. He composed his Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Founding Document to publicly condemn the horrors of slavery and followed by signing a petition to the United States Congress urging abolition. Regrettably, Congress did not act in favor of this effort, and the matter was ultimately resolved decades later by the bloody American Civil War.