Runaway America2004

"Scientist revolutionary, abolitionist; that is the Benjamin Franklin we know and celebrates. To this description, David Waldstreicher shows we must add runaway, slave master, and empire builder. But Runaway America does much more those revise our image of a beloved Founding Father, Finding slavery at the center of Franklin's life. Waldstreicher proves it was likewise central to the Revolution, America's founding, and the very notion of freedom we associate with both." "Franklin was the sole Founding Father who was once owned by someone else. As an indentured servant, Franklin fled his master before his term was complete; as a struggling printer, he built a financial empire selling newspapers that not only advertised the goods of a slave economy (not to mention slaves themselves) but also...