How the “Penman of the Revolution” became the only Founding Father to free slaves during the Revolutionary war

John Dickinson’s Freedom Writings and Slavery Contradiction

First State National Historical Park tells the story of America’s most conflicted founding father.

John Dickinson wrote passionate essays calling British taxes a form of “slavery” while keeping 59 actual enslaved people at his Delaware plantation.

His famous “Letters from a Farmer” helped unite the colonies against Britain in 1767, but back home, men, women, and children picked his tobacco and wheat without freedom.

Dickinson saw the contradiction and became the only founder to free his slaves during the war itself. Here’s how the “Penman of the Revolution” wrestled with his greatest moral failure.

The Farmer’s Letters Sparked Colonial Outrage

The Pennsylvania Chronicle printed the first “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania” on December 2, 1767.

John Dickinson wrote these letters to fight the Townshend Acts, which taxed goods like paper, glass, and tea.

He compared British taxation to slavery, writing “We are taxed without our own consent… we are slaves.”

His words caught fire across America, with 19 of 23 colonial newspapers printing his arguments.

At his Poplar Hall plantation in Delaware, Dickinson kept between 37 and 59 people enslaved who grew tobacco, wheat, and corn.

Words About Freedom From a Slaveholder’s Pen

Dickinson’s weekly letters ran through February 1768 and reached more readers than any earlier political writing in the colonies.

He argued Parliament could control trade but couldn’t tax colonists to raise money.

This matched common Whig thinking that linked taxation without representation to enslavement. The British spotted this contradiction.

Samuel Johnson fired back in 1775: “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”

People called Dickinson the “Penman of the Revolution” while he owned people on his plantation.

War Brought Personal Costs and Moral Questions

Dickinson refused to vote for the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, thinking America could still fix things with Britain.

The war soon hit home when British troops burned his Philadelphia house during the Battle of Germantown in October 1777.

That August, he joined the Delaware militia as a private soldier under Caesar Rodney at the Battle of Brandywine.

By 1777, Dickinson had become Delaware’s richest farmer and owned more enslaved people than anyone else in the state.

He Took Action While Other Founders Just Talked

On May 12, 1777, Dickinson did something no other Founding Father did during the Revolutionary War. He signed papers to free 37 enslaved people on his plantation.

There was a catch, they had to work 21 more years before getting complete freedom. The Kent County Rolls Office in Dover recorded this decision on August 28, 1777.

His Quaker background likely pushed him toward this choice, along with switching from labor-heavy tobacco to wheat farming.

Freedom Came in Stages for the Enslaved

Dickinson issued more freedom papers in 1779 for his remaining enslaved workers.

Children born during the 21-year waiting period would be free unless Dickinson chose to keep and teach them.

His Quaker community strongly opposed slavery among its members, putting social pressure on him to act.

Delaware law made mass freedom costly, requiring bond payments for each person freed. As he aged, Dickinson lined up more closely with Quaker beliefs about ending slavery.

The Final Steps to Complete Emancipation

In 1781, Dickinson fully freed six men, women, and children from his Delaware Home without any waiting period.

By 1786, he signed final papers releasing all his remaining enslaved people from bondage completely. Some formerly enslaved people stayed on as paid workers at Poplar Hall.

Some children became servants to the Dickinson family, while older former slaves lived out their days on the property.

This made him the only Founding Father who completely freed all his enslaved workers during his lifetime.

He Spoke Up When Others Stayed Silent

Dickinson served as Delaware’s delegate to the Constitutional Convention from May to September 1787.

During floor talks on August 22, he stood up and spoke against the slave trade on moral grounds. He called importing slaves “wrong on every principle of honor and safety” and said it hurt “national happiness.”

Dickinson joined a small group of delegates including John Langdon, Luther Martin, George Mason, and James Madison who openly opposed the slave trade during the convention.

A Motion That Changed the Constitution

Dickinson formally moved to ban the slave trade in the Constitution, citing moral reasons. Luther Martin backed him up, saying the slave trade went against “the principles of the Revolution.”

George Mason added that “every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.” South Carolina and Georgia delegates threatened to walk out if the convention limited slavery.

The delegates voted 7-3-1 to send the issue to a committee to find a middle ground everyone could accept.

The Compromise That Limited Slavery’s Growth

The committee came back with a deal allowing the slave trade to continue until 1808, but no longer.

This became Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, which stopped Congress from banning “importation of such persons” before that year.

The framers carefully avoided using the word “slavery” anywhere in the document. Dickinson’s motion led to the first constitutional limit on the slave trade in American history.

The 20-year window satisfied both northern delegates who wanted abolition and southern states that demanded protection for slavery.

His Fight Against Slavery Continued

As Delaware’s president in 1782, Dickinson pushed the state Assembly to pass gradual abolition laws. He fought to prevent enslaved families from being “cruelly separated from one another” when sold.

In 1786, he wrote abolition legislation for Delaware’s legislature, but it failed to pass.

During the 1791 Delaware Constitutional Convention debates about prohibiting slavery, Dickinson stayed neutral.

He believed the General Assembly should handle the slavery question rather than putting it in the state constitution.

A Mixed Legacy Lives On

John Dickinson died in Wilmington, Delaware on February 14, 1808. Thomas Jefferson praised him as “among the first of the advocates for the rights of his country.”

Just weeks later, on March 2, 1808, the federal ban on the slave trade took effect, fulfilling the constitutional provision Dickinson had fought for at the convention.

In 2021, archaeologists found a burial ground with at least 25 enslaved people at Poplar Hall.

His story shows a man who wrote passionately about freedom while profiting from human bondage, but who eventually tried to correct his contradiction.

Visiting First State National Historical Park

You can explore John Dickinson’s complex legacy at his plantation mansion at 340 Kitts Hummock Road in Dover.

The visitor center and grounds are open Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm and Sunday 1:30 to 4pm.

Mansion tours run Thursday through Saturday at 10:30am, 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, and 3:30pm.

To visit the African burial ground, call 302-739-3277 for reservations. Admission is free but donations are welcome.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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