According to noted historian Gordon S. Wood's biography, Benjamin Franklin owned slaves, later repudiated the institution, and became president of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. His is a trajectory "supposedly enlightened" bondsman to avid anti-slavery proponent. Wood noted, "In a statement in November, 1789, signed by Franklin, the society declared that slavery was `such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils." In February 1790, Franklin signed a memorial to the new federal Congress requesting the abolition of slavery in the United States. "The petition predictably outraged many in the Congress and the country, and Franklin and the Quakers were viciously attacked. Congressman James Jackson of Georgia was especially vociferous in defending slavery in the House of Representatives." Jackson argued for continued enslavement of people of African descent, claiming that the "fields of the South" would be left untended, as he asked, "Who else could do the work in the hot climate?" When Franklin read Jackson's speech, he ridiculed it in his newspaper, the Federal Gazette.