Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
Born	Benjamin Franklin January 17, 1706
Birthplace	Boston, Massachusetts Bay, British America
Died	April 17, 1790 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, political philosopher
Title	6th President of Pennsylvania
Known for	Founding Father of the United States, signer of the Declaration of Independence, experiments with electricity, lightning rod, bifocals, Poor Richard's Almanack
Education	Boston Latin School
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society, Copley Medal
Website	http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath. His reach spanned writing, science, invention, statesmanship, diplomacy, printing, publishing, and political philosophy. Born into a modest Boston family as one of seventeen children, Franklin worked his way up through self-education and sheer determination to become one of the most important figures in American history and one of the eighteenth century's most influential thinkers. He was a Founding Father of the United States, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, the first United States Postmaster General, and the first American ambassador to France.

As a scientist, he conducted experiments with electricity and invented the lightning rod, pushing American Enlightenment thinking forward and shaping the history of physics itself. As a civic leader, he founded institutions that survive to this day: the University of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia's first fire department. Franklin alone signed all four major documents that created the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution. His life stretched from Queen Anne's reign to George Washington's presidency, encompassing one of the most transformative periods in Western history. Franklin wasn't just present for that transformation. He stood at its center.

Early Life

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, part of British America at the time. His father was Josiah Franklin, a tallow chandler and soap maker who'd emigrated from Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, in 1682. His mother was Abiah Folger, Josiah's second wife. Benjamin was the fifteenth of seventeen children. The large Franklin household sat on Milk Street, directly across from the Old South Meeting House.

Formal education wasn't really in the cards. His father wanted him to enter the ministry and sent him to Boston Latin School at age eight. But the family couldn't afford it, so they pulled him out after only two years. A brief stint at writing and arithmetic school followed, then at age ten his father brought him into the family candle and soap business. Franklin hated it. He desperately wanted to go to sea, which terrified his father.

At twelve, Franklin was apprenticed to his older brother James Franklin, a printer. The apprenticeship would last until Benjamin turned twenty-one. It introduced him to the world of letters and publishing. During those years, Franklin spent every spare moment reading and writing. He studied John Bunyan, Plutarch, Daniel Defoe, and Cotton Mather. He taught himself arithmetic and basic geometry.

In 1722, at sixteen, Franklin started writing letters to his brother's newspaper, The New-England Courant, under the pseudonym "Silence Dogood." These letters mocked colonial life: religious hypocrisy, the treatment of women, all of it. Readers loved them. James had no idea his younger brother was the author. When James found out, their relationship fell apart. In 1723, at age seventeen, Franklin broke his apprenticeship contract and fled Boston. He went to New York first, then made his way to Philadelphia, arriving in October 1723 with almost no money and no connections.

Education

His formal schooling amounted to two years at Boston Latin School plus a bit of writing and arithmetic instruction. Everything else came from reading and self-discipline. Throughout his life, Franklin was voracious about books and relentless about self-improvement. In his autobiography, he describes how he developed his prose style: he'd read essays in The Spectator by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, rewrite them from memory, then compare his versions to the originals.

Later, honors came pouring in. Harvard College and Yale College each gave him honorary Master of Arts degrees. The University of St Andrews in Scotland awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1759. Oxford conferred an honorary Doctor of Civil Law in 1762. Those last two honors meant people started calling him "Dr. Franklin."

Career

Printing and Publishing

His Philadelphia career started small. Franklin worked as a printer's assistant, then traveled to London around 1724 for about eighteen months, working in various printing houses and soaking up what the city had to offer. He came back to Philadelphia in 1726. By 1728, he'd set up his own printing business with a partner, Hugh Meredith.

In 1729, at twenty-three, Franklin bought The Pennsylvania Gazette. What he did with that paper changed everything. Sharp writing, practical smarts, and real business sense made it profitable and influential. The Gazette wasn't just a moneymaker for Franklin. He used it to shape public discourse, push for civic improvements, and later to argue for political change.

Starting in 1732, Franklin published Poor Richard's Almanack under the name "Richard Saunders." He put out a new one every year for twenty-five years. These almanacs had weather forecasts, astrology, poetry, and aphorisms that stuck in people's minds. "A penny saved is a penny earned." "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." "God helps them that help themselves." The thing sold around ten thousand copies a year. Franklin became a wealthy man.

After 1767, Franklin worked with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper known for stirring up trouble. It attacked British Parliament and the Crown. His publishing work thus stretched across decades, shaping colonial public opinion as the revolution approached.

Civic Leadership and Institutions

Franklin's contributions to Philadelphia and the colonies weren't small. He founded the Junto, a group of tradesmen and artisans who met regularly to talk about civic matters and self-improvement. This group became the seed for his bigger projects.

He created the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731, one of North America's first lending libraries. He organized the Union Fire Company in 1736, Philadelphia's first volunteer fire department. He helped start Pennsylvania Hospital and pushed hard for better streets, better lighting, and a stronger night watch.

Franklin began the Academy and College of Philadelphia in 1749, serving as its first president from November 13, 1749, to May 24, 1754. The school opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He also founded the American Philosophical Society, starting as its first secretary and later becoming president in 1769. The society turned into one of the colonies' most important learned institutions and still exists today.

Scientific Work

Franklin's work in electricity brought him international fame and put him among the leading scientists of the 1700s. He got interested in electrical phenomena in the mid-1740s. He introduced vocabulary we still use: "positive," "negative," "battery," "conductor," and "charge."

His most famous experiment happened in 1752. He flew a kite during a thunderstorm to show that lightning was electrical. It worked. This led directly to his lightning rod invention, a device that's saved countless buildings and lives over the centuries. His reputation as a scientist mattered enormously for his political career. When he went to France later, the Enlightenment thinkers there celebrated him for exactly this kind of work.

He also made important discoveries in oceanography. Franklin charted and named the Gulf Stream, recognizing how crucial it was for ships crossing the Atlantic. His chart, first published in the early 1770s, helped eastbound ships cut weeks off their journey by catching the current, while westbound ships learned to stay away from it.

Beyond the lightning rod, Franklin invented bifocal eyeglasses, the glass harmonica (a musical instrument that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven later wrote music for), and the Franklin stove, which gave more heat while burning less fuel. Notably, he never patented any of his inventions. He believed they belonged to the public.

Postal Service

In 1753, Franklin became deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in North America. He held that job until January 31, 1774. He reorganized the postal system, set up new routes, cut delivery times, and made it profitable for the first time. This was basically the colonies' first national communications network, linking distant towns and moving news around in ways that would prove essential when revolution came.

After independence, the Second Continental Congress appointed him the first United States Postmaster General. He served from July 26, 1775, to November 7, 1776. He laid the groundwork for the national postal system, building on what he'd already done under British rule. Richard Bache, his son-in-law, took over the position after him.

Colonial Agent and Revolutionary Politics

From 1757 to 1775, Franklin spent most of his time in London serving as a colonial agent. He represented Pennsylvania first, then several other colonies before the British government. He became a major player in the transatlantic political arguments that led up to the American Revolution.

Franklin pushed hard to kill the Stamp Act of 1765. Colonists hated that law. In 1766, he testified before the House of Commons, made a powerful case against the tax, and helped get it repealed. North America celebrated him as a hero. He'd proven he could stand up for colonial interests.

By the early 1770s, things got worse between Britain and the colonies. Franklin's position in London grew harder to hold. In 1774, he was humiliated before the Privy Council over private letters from Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson that he'd released. Shortly after, they fired him from his job as deputy postmaster-general. Franklin headed home to Philadelphia in May 1775, arriving just weeks after Lexington and Concord, and jumped into the revolutionary effort right away.

Pennsylvania chose him as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He served from May 10, 1775, to October 26, 1776. He sat on the Committee of Five, which drafted the Declaration of Independence, working alongside Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. When he signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776, Franklin supposedly said, "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Diplomacy in France

Late in 1776, at age seventy, Franklin sailed to France as one of three American commissioners. They needed military aid and money from the French. He landed in Paris in December 1776 and quickly became a celebrity. His reputation as a scientist, a philosopher, and an unpretentious man won over the French public and the intellectuals of the Enlightenment.

Franklin was the first United States Minister to France from March 23, 1779, to May 17, 1785. His diplomatic work secured the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778, bringing French military support to the American cause. That support proved crucial to winning the war. He also served as United States Minister to Sweden from September 28, 1782, to April 3, 1783.

In 1783, Franklin helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War and recognized American independence. Thomas Jefferson became his successor as Minister to France. When someone asked Jefferson if he was replacing Franklin, he said, "No one can replace him. I am only his successor."

President of Pennsylvania and the Constitutional Convention

Franklin came back to Philadelphia in 1785. Almost immediately, they elected him the sixth President of Pennsylvania (essentially the governor), serving from October 18, 1785, to November 5, 1788. He took over from John Dickinson and was succeeded by Thomas Mifflin.

In 1787, at eighty-one years old, Franklin served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. His age and failing health meant he couldn't do much physically, but having him there gave huge weight to the proceedings. On the final day of the Convention, he gave a famous speech urging his fellow delegates to sign the Constitution even though it wasn't perfect. He doubted any convention could produce a better one. He was the oldest person to sign.

Abolitionism

Franklin's thinking on slavery shifted quite a bit over his lifetime. From as early as 1735, he owned at least seven enslaved people and ran ads selling enslaved individuals in his newspaper. But by the late 1750s, he'd started arguing against slavery. In his final years, he became an active abolitionist and promoted educating African Americans and bringing them fully into American life. In 1787, he became president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. He held that position from April 23, 1787, until his death on April 17, 1790.

Personal Life

Franklin entered into a common-law marriage with Deborah Read on September 1, 1730. They couldn't legally marry because Read's first husband, John Rogers, had deserted her but was never declared dead. Divorce was impossible under colonial law. Their two children were Francis Folger Franklin, who died of smallpox at age four in 1736, and Sarah Franklin Bache, who married Richard Bache. Franklin also had an illegitimate son, William Franklin, born before his union with Deborah. William became the last colonial Governor of New Jersey and remained loyal to the Crown during the Revolution. This created a permanent break between father and son.

Deborah died in 1774 while Benjamin was in London. They'd spent much of their marriage apart because of his long absences. His public career came at a personal cost.

Franklin drafted his final will in 1788. It showed both his practical nature and his concern for the public good. He left money to Boston and Philadelphia, to be invested and distributed over two hundred years. That bequest eventually yielded millions for civic work.

He died on April 17, 1790, at eighty-four, in Philadelphia. About twenty thousand people came to his funeral. He was buried at Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia next to his wife.

Recognition

During his lifetime, Franklin won significant honors, and he's been commemorated extensively ever since. In 1756, the Royal Society in London elected him a Fellow and awarded him the Copley Medal for his electrical experiments. Harvard, Yale, the University of St Andrews, and Oxford all gave him honorary degrees.

Since 1914, Franklin's image has been on the one-hundred-dollar bill. His face has appeared on countless postage stamps. Cities, counties, towns, schools, and institutions across the United States and the world carry his name. The Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship, backed by the U.S. Department of State, continues his legacy through international exchange programs.

In March 2026, a life-size statue of Franklin was placed in the White House Rose Garden alongside Alexander Hamilton, reflecting Franklin's lasting importance in American civic culture.

Legacy

People called Franklin "The First American" because he pushed for colonial unity early and often. His Albany Plan of Union in 1754 showed this commitment, and he kept working toward independence and constitutional government for decades. Franklin signed all four founding documents of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the Constitution.

His influence on American identity and culture runs deep. His autobiography, begun in 1771 and published after his death, became one of the foundational works of American literature. It established the figure of the self-made individual who rises through hard work, sharp thinking, and moral discipline. The sayings from Poor Richard's Almanack got woven into the language. His civic institutions—the library, university, fire company, philosophical society—showed how public-spirited work could be done and were copied all across the new nation.

As a scientist, Franklin's work on electricity was foundational. His experimental methods and his drive to put science to practical use showed what the Enlightenment was about. He gave his inventions away without patents because he believed knowledge should serve everyone.

As a diplomat, Franklin's work getting French support for the Revolution was essential to winning independence. He could move through European courts and salons while maintaining the image of a simple American philosopher. Few of his contemporaries had his understanding of international relations and public diplomacy.

His shift from slaveholder to abolitionist has received serious historical attention. His late-life work for abolition and for educating African Americans doesn't erase his earlier participation in slavery, but it does represent one of the more significant intellectual changes among the Founding Fathers.

Tens of thousands of Franklin documents still exist and remain crucial for historians studying colonial and revolutionary America. Yale University maintains the Papers of Benjamin Franklin project and publishes them digitally, making them available to scholars worldwide.