How did Ben Franklin treat his slaves? How Ben Franklin treated his slaves evolved, early in life he treated them as typical slave owner of colonial Pennsylvania, owning household slaves who worked as domestic servants, but records suggest not unusually cruel for time, though still enslavement is inherently oppressive. Franklin owned slaves Peter, Jemima, and others, used them for household labor and in his printing shop, and allowed them some limited autonomy, but still as property. By 1760s his views changed, he began to see slavery as wrong, treated his slaves more leniently, and eventually freed them. He paid his slave Peter wages in later years and freed him, and became advocate for better treatment and education of Black people, opening school for Black children and advocating for their integration. After freeing slaves, he employed former slaves as paid servants. So treatment early typical for time, later more enlightened, freeing them and becoming abolitionist President of Pennsylvania Abolition Society, advocating for humane treatment and education, though early ownership remains part of his legacy showing evolution from slave owner to abolitionist.
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