Slavery and our founding fathers

www.loc.org www.whitehouse.gov

John Adams President from 1797 - 1801, never owned slaves. In 1820 John Adams were quoted as saying "I shudder when I think of the calamities which slavery is likely to produce in this country. You would think me mad if I were to describe my anticipations. If the gangrene is not stopped I can see nothing but insurrection of the blacks against the whites."

"Although I have never sought popularity by animated Speeches or inflammatory publications against Slavery of the Blacks, my opinion against it has always been known...and never in my life did I own a Slave. The Abolition of Slavery must be gradual and accomplished with much caution and Circumspection ." www.loc.gov

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John Adams's cousin Samuel Adams apparently received a slave named Surry as a gift in 1765. Some sources say she remained a slave; others say Samuel freed her immediately. In any case she stayed on as Samuel's family cook for several decades - even after slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts by a bill Samuel introduced.

"[M]y opinion against it [slavery] has always been known... [N]ever in my life did I own a slave." -John Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. President. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1854), vol IX pp. 92-93. In a letter to George Churchman and Jacob Lindley on January 24, 1801.

"Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States ... I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in ... abhorrence." -- John Adams, letter to Robert Evans, June 8, 1819

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