"Very good Sack at 6s per Gallon"; "Glaz'd FullingPapers and Bonnet-Papers"; "Very good Lampblack"; "Very good Chocolate"; "Linseed Oil"; "Very Good Coffee"; "Compasses and Scales"; "Seneka Rattlesnake Root, with directions how to use it in the Pleurisy, &c."; "Dividers and Protractors"; "A very good second hand two-wheel chaise"; A very neat, new fashion'd vehicle, or four wheel'd chaise, very convenient to carry weak or other sick persons old or young"; Good Rhode Island Cheese and Cod Fish"; "Quadrants"; "Fore staffs"; "Nocturnals"; "Mariners Compasses "; Season'd Merchantable Boards"; Coarse and fine edgings"; "Fine broad Scarlet Cloth, fine broad black Cloth, fine white Thread Hose, and English Sale Duck"; "Very good Iron Stoves"; "A Large Horse fit for a Chair or Saddle"; "The True and Genuine Godfrey's Cordial"; "Choice Bohea Tea"; "Very good English Saffron"; "New York Lottery Tickets"; "Choice Makrel to be sold by the Barrel"; "A Large Copper Still": "Very good Spermacety"; "Fine Palm Oyl"; "Very good Temple Spectacles"; "A New Fishing Net." 66 A stranger mode of turning a penny was by a venture now and again in indentured or bond servants, being such immigrants as sold their service for a stated. number of years in return for a passage to the colonies. Franklin would occasionally purchase "the time,” as the expression then was, of some of these, and then in the columns of his paper would insert advertisements of which the following are samples: "A Likely Servant Lad's Time to be disposed of. He is fit for Country or Town Business, has four Years to serve, and has been in the Country a Year and a Half. Enquire of the Printer." "To Be Sold. A Likely Servant Woman, having three Years and a half to Serve. She is a good Spinner." "To be Sold. A Likely servant lad, about 15 years of age, and has 6 years to serve." "To be sold, a young Servant Welsh Woman, having one Year and a half to serve, and is fit for Town or Country Service. Enquire of the Printer." "To be Sold. A Likely Dutch Servant Girl, about 13 Years of Age, and has 5 Years to serve." "A Likely young Woman's Time to be disposed of, about eighteen Years of Age, fit for Town or Country Business, and can handle her Needle well." "To be Sold, An Irish Servant Girls Time: She has Three Years and Three Quarters to serve; is young, and fit for Town or Country Business." A somewhat kindred but more regrettable traffic was one in slaves. Though, due to the Friends, there was a very positive public sentiment in Philadelphia against slavery, and still more against the buying and selling of men, Franklin had too much New England canniness to regard it, and made many a venture in the purchase and sale of negroes, his newspaper informing the public that "A Likely Young Negro Wench, who is a good Cook, and can Wash well is to be disposed of. Enquire of the Printer hereof." "To be sold. A Likely young Negroe Wench, about 18 Years of Age, speaks good English, and is fit for either Town or Country. Enquire of the Printer hereof." “To be Sold. A Likely Molatto Girl, aged about 16 Years, has had the Small Pox, is fit for either Town or Country, to be disposed of very reasonable, enquire of the Printer hereof.” "To be Sold, A Likely young Negroe Fellow, about Twentysix Years of Age, suitable for any Farming or Plantation Business, having been long accustomed to it and has had the Small-Pox. Enquire of the Printer hereof." "To be Sold. A Negro Man Twenty-two Years of Age, of uncommon Strength and Activity, very fit for a Farmer, or a laborious Trade, he understands the best methods of managing Horses, and is very faithful in the Employment: Any Person that wants such a one may see him by enquiring of the Printer hereof." "To be Sold. A Likely Negro woman, with a man-child, fit for town or country business. Enquire of the Printer hereof." "To Be Sold, A Lusty, young, Negroe Woman, fit for Country Business, she has had the Smallpox, and Meazles. Enquire of the Printers hereof. "To be Sold. A Prime able young Negro man, fit for laborious work, in town or country, that has had the smallpox: As also a middle aged Negro man, that has likewise had the smallpox. Enquire of the printer hereof: Or otherwise they will be expos'd to sale by publick vendue, on Saturday the 11th of April next, at 12 o'clock, at the Indian-king, in Market-street." Some of these slaves he procured from New England, where, as population grew in density, the need for them. passed, leading to their sale in the colonies to the southward; and there was not always a profit, for Franklin, of one purchase of husband and wife, wrote to his mother: "We conclude to sell them both the first good opportunity, for we do not like negro servants," with a result that "We got again about half what we lost." In spite of this prejudice, Franklin took with him two negro servants to England on his second visit, with slight benefit, for one, who "was of little use, and often in mischief," ran off within a year, and the other behaved only as well as I could expect, in a country where there are many occasions of spoiling servants, if they are ever so good." "He has as few faults as most of them," the philosopher observed, "and I see with only one eye and hear only with one ear; so we rub on pretty comfortably." Franklin, as he grew in years, came to disapprove heartily of the whole slave system, and he expressed satisfaction "that a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and that even the Virginia. Assembly have petitioned the king for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more |