This morning we walked across the University of Pennsylvania campus to College Hall to hear two lectures. The first, by David Waldstreicher of Temple University, was about Ben Franklin and how he has become strongly associated with the Abolitionist movement in recent years. The professor contends that the image of Franklin as anti-slavery is a modern interpretation and that Franklin even owned slaves though that is not something most people know. Professor W. said that the anti-slavery Franklin comes at the end of his story, and that he was concerned about his legacy and was actually embarrassed that he had once owned slaves. Franklin even omitted any reference to slaves in his autobiography.

Two points that Professor Waldstreicher made were especially interesting to me. First, he stated that Ben Franklin himself was a runaway indentured servant, though I had never considered that before. I knew Franklin had been apprenticed to his brother in his print shop and they hadn’t gotten along very well, so Franklin left Boston and went to Philadelphia to start on his own. The professor also noted that Franklin had made a good portion of his fortune from classified ads that advertised the sale of slaves. Since it was difficult to actually collect subscription fees to his newspaper, the revenue from ads was his most reliable and lucrative form of income. We had a special treat of Dunkin’ doughnuts and coffee, thanks to our professors. Very nice surprise.

“The Great American Slave Rebellion” or the “Banned from Gettysburg” lecture was next on the agenda. Robert Eng’s objective was to dispel two myths that he said are believed as strongly by blacks as by whites in this country: 1) Lincoln freed the slaves and 2) the Emancipation Proclamation was genius. The professor said that the slaves actually freed themselves by joining the Union Army and providing intelligence to the North. Some 25,000 slaves escaped to the Union Army. It would have been too dangerous to let slaves believe they had facilitated their own freedom, as the common belief was that they would continue their rebellion. He also gave us access to an electronic archive that he helped create with over 270 documents including broadsides, full text articles, cartoons, and speeches. This will be an awesome resource for classroom use.

 

                 

                                  

The afternoon was spent visiting sites we might have missed earlier in the historic downtown area. One of the best things about traveling with so many people is that there is always a group to join. After Elfreth’s Alley, some wanted to go to Penn’s Landing, so I joined another group. We slowly wandered the sites in the heat and we all agreed our pace was perfect. Lauren, Brian, Becky, Donna, Marie and I toured the cemetery at Christ Church where several signers are buried including Ben Franklin. We also returned to Franklin Court where Franklin’s house once stood. Excerpts from letters between Franklin and his wife were telling about their relationship even though they were separated by the Atlantic Ocean for many years during their marriage. I would love to study Franklin in more depth. He is one of the most interesting men I am aware of. The fact that he didn’t patent any of his many inventions astounds me. Rather than profiting from his genius, he thought he already had more than enough money, so he put his inventions out there for the benefit of the general public. One more trip to the Pemberton Bookstore to add to my ever-growing resources for the classroom. I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with my students!

 

Elfreth's Alley