Benjamin Franklin

Intellectually, Benjamin Franklin was a very gifted person, with only a few years of academic schooling, he was a self-taught individual. Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, one of ten children of a soap and candle maker. As a young teenager he worked for his step-brother as an apprentice printer; at the age of fifteen he was secretly writing essays for the “New England Courant”.¹ By 1723, Franklin had moved to Philadelphia and was working for a new printer. For the next few years he made many acquaintances and worked in different jobs even traveling to London for several months. Eventually he purchased his own printing shop and published “The Pennsylvania Gazette” and in 1732 started publishing the annual booklet “Poor Richard’s Almanac” that continued until 1758 when it was replaced by “Father Abraham’s Sermon”.² Both publications were widely read among the colonists.

After being successful in printing and several businesses, Franklin contributed more of his talents to public affairs. He encouraged his acquaintances to form an academy that eventually became the University of Pennsylvania. During the same time period he founded the American Philosophical Society for the purpose of encouraging individuals to share their discoveries with one another.³ Franklin used much of his leisure time to do scientific research especially in the field of electricity. With respect to politics he was known for his reform of the postal system.⁴

Franklin served the Penn family as a representative at several native Indian conferences in order to settle land and trading disputes. One such meeting took place October 1, 1754 in Carlisle. Accompanying Franklin were Nicholas Frank, Richard Peters and Isaac Norris who were representing Governor Hamilton. The meeting took place at a tavern located in the first block (south-west) of South Hanover Street; many years after the meeting it was known as the Sign of Green Tree.⁵ In 1764, Franklin became involved in trying to mediate a solution between debating factions in the General Assembly (Quaker party, Anglican proprietary party and the frontier Scotch-Irish) over the Paxton affair. The Paxton Boys of Lancaster County were responsible for the brutal slaying of a group of non-threating Native Indians and the total disregard for the rule of law. For a short period the former were housed in the Cumberland County jail in Carlisle.⁶

From 1765-1775, Franklin resided in England representing a group of Pennsylvanians who were petitioning the English government to make Pennsylvania a royal colony and remove it from the control of the Penn family.⁷ By May of 1775, he had returned to Philadelphia and had become a member of the Continental Congress. Thirteen months later he was serving on a committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence.

During the Revolutionary War years Franklin returned to Europe to serve a diplomat and spent most of his time in France where he negotiated several treaties of commerce and promoted alliances between the American colonies and France. Along with John Jay and John Adams, Franklin negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended the War for Independence.⁸

In later years Franklin worked on his autobiography and became involved with the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (1787). He died in 1790 and was interred in Christ Episcopal Church burying ground in Philadelphia.