Prof disputes 'crazy conceptions' about slaves

Speaking about the state of black slaves in America before the Civil war, John Hope Franklin told an audience of over 100 students and faculty members that any report of blacks being content before abolition "is a pseudo-truism." Franklin, a Duke University history professor and this year's Leon Higginbotham Distinguished Lecturer, spoke about past historians' "crazy conceptions" about the conditions of black slaves. "Claims made by most of the historians who wrote around or after the Civil War were the craziest," Franklin said during his speech at the Annenberg Center. "They claimed that slaves were content with their status as slaves." Franklin, who is known for his work, From Slavery To Freedom, added most of these historians were southern by birth. He said the founding fathers were afraid free blacks would undermine the slave culture in the South. Slave owners did not want their slaves to seek the liberty that freed blacks had gained. "There were always free blacks, and the slave owners tried to hide this fact," he said. Franklin said the founding fathers understood any acknowledgement of blacks' constitutional rights "would be bad for slave morale." It was for this reason the framers of the Constitution never even referred directly to the word "slaves," he said, referring to Article Four, section Two of the Constitution. "[The Constitution] doesn't call slavery, 'slavery'," he said. "It refers only to 'people held to service.' Our founding fathers did not have the stomach to call a spade a spade or a slave a slave." Franklin, known for his vast knowledge about this subject, described the poor conditions in which many slaves lived and worked during the Civil War era. He said, based on his research, slaves were flagrantly abused and "had every cause to run away." "If they were so content why were they running away," he asked, stressing his point to the audience. "Between 1823 and 1843, around 550 slaves ran away from their masters." Franklin said newspaper advertisements offering rewards for lost slaves are evidence of the injustice of the time. "Some were branded, often on their foreheads, [and] many had scars, according to the advertisements," he said. Based on contemporary news sources, Franklin said that these slave advertisements ran like any other classified ad. "The symbol of the whip, and not their own contentedness, was what kept the slaves enslaved," he concluded.

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