Benjamin Franklin Papers

From Benjamin Franklin to Granville Sharp, 21 January 1775

To Granville Sharp8

AL: Miss T. Olive Lloyd-Baker, Hardwicke Court, Glos. (1956)

Cravenstreet Jan. 21. 75

Dr. Franklin presents his respectful Compliments to Mr. Sharp, with many Thanks for the Copy of his excellent Work,9 of which he desires 50 may be sent him; with a Bill of what he is indebted.

Addressed: Granville Sharp Esqr

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

8BF had long known Sharp’s work against slavery, and had made his acquaintance by early 1773. Above, XVII, 38 n; XX, 41. The Englishman’s sympathy for the American cause was now an additional bond.

9This was undoubtedly the book, A Declaration of the People’s Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature … (London, 1774), which had grown out of Sharp’s small pamphlet of the same title that BF had sent to Cushing with his letter above, July 27. The new work added a second part to the declaration, vastly longer than the first and focused upon Ireland although with a few American overtones.

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