Benjamin Franklin, Colonial Sectional Conflicts, and Early American History
Benjamin Franklin: Historiography and Popular Perception
Founding Era Context and International Stature:
Among the revolutionary leadership assemblage—including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton—Benjamin Franklin was internationally the most renowned contemporary figure.
To the global public, Franklin personified the American character, its scientific ingenuity, and its social possibilities.
He rose from the status of a Boston candle maker and soap boiler's son through sheer talent, intellect, and industry to become celebrated as the "first citizen of the eighteenth century."
He held prestigious memberships in three European national academies of science.
He served as the postmaster of Philadelphia, became the first Postmaster General of the United States, and proved to be one of America's most astute diplomats and statesmen.
Popular Myth versus Historical Scope:
Modern public consciousness often diminishes Franklin to a quaint, eccentric gadgeteer, the author of folksy adages, and a kite-flyer in electrical storms.
Historically, his operational scope encompassed politics, classical literature, advanced physics, civic administration, diplomacy, and publishing.
Critical Assessments and Detractors:
Franklin's pragmatic nature generated persistent suspicion during and after his lifetime.
Author D. H. Lawrence viewed Franklin as a deceptive hypocrite who outwardly preached middle-class bourgeois moralism while indulging private vices and self-enrichment.
Sociologist and historian Max Weber cited Franklin's writings as the embodiment of the capitalist spirit, interpreting his utilitarian ethos as representing despicable qualities in both the American national character and capitalist economic systems.
Conversely, mainstream historical analysis views Franklin's trajectory as the archetype of the self-made individual, prefiguring the Horatio Alger narrative.
His public visual presence was ubiquitous across two continents; portraits, commemorative medallions, and porcelain plates bearing his likeness were commercial bestsellers in Europe and America.
Epitaph and Self-Identity:
Franklin remained comfortable in the presence of kings, aristocracy, and tradesmen alike, famously choosing a plain fur cap over an aristocratic wig.
At the age of , he authored his own epitaph, viewing himself above all as a craftsman:
"Here lies the body of Ben Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here food for worms. But the work shall not be lost, for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, corrected and improved by the author."
He was ultimately buried beneath a modest headstone bearing only the inscription: "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin."
Early Life, Apprenticeship, and Literary Emergence
Origins and Upbringing:
Born in Boston on January 17, 1706.
The seventh child of Abiah Folger Franklin, the second wife of Josiah Franklin.
Josiah Franklin was a dyer and tallow chandler who had emigrated from the English Midlands years earlier.
Although Josiah initially earmarked young Benjamin for the Christian ministry due to his early passion for books, the family lacked financial resources to afford a university education at Harvard.
Apprenticeship and Formative Writings:
At age , Franklin was briefly apprenticed to his father as a cutler/cabinetmaker before being indentured to his older brother, James Franklin, as an apprentice printer.
The print shop environment provided direct exposure to contemporary literature, trade pamphlets, and classical essays.
At age , he authored two street ballads sold in Boston, which he later characterized as "wretched stuff."
When James established The New England Courant, Benjamin sought to contribute journalistic prose.
To bypass James's refusal to print his work, the -year-old adopted the satirical pseudonym "Silence Dogood"—a gossipy, moralizing, outspoken country widow.
Franklin slipped anonymous Dogood essays under the door of the print shop at night, modeling his balanced prose style directly on the essays of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in The Spectator, Britain's leading literary periodical.
His authorship of the celebrated Dogood papers remained undisclosed to the broader public until his Autobiography was published years later.
His early literary experimentation included rewriting the Lord's Prayer (arguing his version possessed superior theological and stylistic merits), issuing a limited revised edition of the Book of Common Prayer, and inventing an apocryphal Biblical chapter titled the "Parable on Persecution," which he recited to test whether theological acquaintances would detect the forgery.
Escape to Philadelphia and the London Venture:
Chafing under James's harsh discipline and corporal beatings, the -year-old Franklin fled his apprenticeship contract in October 1723.
To secure passage on a ship out of Boston, he fabricated a story to the captain claiming he had gotten an unmarried girl pregnant and needed an urgent, discreet departure.
Following an arduous layover in New York, he arrived at the Philadelphia waterfront exhausted, bedraggled, and possessing only minimal funds.
His future wife, Deborah Read, observed him standing on the wharf and laughed aloud at his ridiculous appearance.
Seeking rest, he entered a local Quaker meetinghouse and immediately fell asleep due to unfamiliarity with the denomination's silent form of worship.
He secured employment in Philadelphia as a journeyman printer under Samuel Keimer.
Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith read an explanatory letter Franklin had written to his parents; Keith was so taken with the youth's eloquence that he visited him personally at Keimer's shop and proposed to sponsor Franklin as Pennsylvania's public printer.
Keith persuaded Franklin to sail to London on Christmas Eve 1724 to purchase type, presses, and establish credit lines, promising letters of introduction and credit.
Upon docking in London, Franklin discovered Keith's promises were entirely empty; no letters of credit were provided.
Stranded without funds, Franklin spent two years working in large London printing houses (including Palmer's and Watts's), irritating his alcohol-dependent coworkers with his strict sobriety and vegetarian diet while earning auxiliary income as a swimming instructor.
Commercial Success and Civic Institutions in Philadelphia
Return and the Plan of Life:
During his return ocean crossing to Philadelphia at age , Franklin outlined a moral "Plan of Conduct" founded on frugality, honesty, industry, and diplomacy.
He established a system of virtues, initially omitting humility until a Quaker acquaintance observed that Franklin's visible pride required the addition of: "Imitate Jesus and Socrates."
Publishing Enterprises:
Returning to Philadelphia, Franklin formed a partnership with a former shopmate and purchased The Pennsylvania Gazette, transforming it into an influential paper.
His press printed America's first domestic medical treatise, the first novel printed in the American colonies (Samuel Richardson's Pamela), and the official paper currency for the Province of Pennsylvania.
He established commercial partnerships across the Eastern Seaboard and Caribbean, funding print shops in Charleston, Barbados, Newport, and Woodbridge, New Jersey, in exchange for profit shares and wholesale supply agreements for paper and ink.
He cornered the Pennsylvania paper distribution market and capitalized on his appointment as colonial Postmaster General to distribute his publications ahead of competitors.
He retired from active commercial printing management in 1748 at the age of , living off leasehold revenues, franchise partnerships, and investment dividends.
Domestic Life:
Franklin renewed his relationship with Deborah Read, who had entered a brief, unhappy marriage to a man who subsequently abandoned her.
On September 1, 1730, Franklin and Deborah established a common-law marriage, residing in rooms above the Market Street print shop.
Franklin brought into the household his illegitimate infant son, William Franklin, born of what he termed "ungovernable youthful passion."
Together they had two children: Francis Folger Franklin (who died of smallpox at age , causing Franklin permanent grief) and Sarah ("Sally") Franklin, who remained a lifelong source of joy.
Poor Richard's Almanack:
Launched in 1732 under the persona of "Poor Richard" (Richard Saunders) and his wife Bridget.
Blended lunar charts, astrological predictions, calendars, recipes, and seasonal weather patterns with moral filler.
Famous aphorisms included:
"God heals, and the doctor takes the fees."
"No nation was ever ruined by trade."
"Necessity never made a good bargain."
The almanac functioned as a secular primer across the Thirteen Colonies, selling approximately copies annually and shaping colonial ideals of thrift, diligence, and skepticism.
The Junto and Public Utilities:
In 1727, Franklin established the Junto ("Leather Apron Club"), an association of young tradesmen and artisans devoted to mutual self-improvement, scientific discussion, and civic engineering.
Institutions conceived within the Junto included:
The Union Fire Company (volunteer fire brigade) and the first fire insurance company.
A municipal night watch system, which evolved into Philadelphia's professional police department.
The Library Company of Philadelphia (1731), the first subscription lending library in North America.
The Pennsylvania Hospital (co-founded with Dr. Thomas Bond) and the Academy and College of Philadelphia (which grew into the University of Pennsylvania).
Scientific Investigations, Electrical Discoveries, and Inventions
Mechanical and Practical Inventions:
Franklin Stove (Pennsylvania Fireplace): An energy-efficient baffled-iron furnace designed to radiate heat into the room while consuming less cordwood and venting smoke safely. Franklin refused to patent the design, arguing that inventions must be offered freely to the public.
Glass Armonica (Harmonica): A musical instrument composed of tuned concentric glass bowls arranged along a foot-treadle-driven iron spindle, played by touching rotating edges with moistened fingertips. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart admired the instrument and composed works specifically for it.
Bifocals, the Flexible Catheter, and Electrostatic Generators: Other utilitarian apparatuses invented or improved by Franklin.
The Gulf Stream: During transatlantic voyages, he systematically mapped ocean currents by taking water temperatures, explaining maritime speed discrepancies between eastbound and westbound ships.
Electrical Science and Terminology:
Prior to Franklin's work during the 1740s, electricity was treated as an enigmatic parlor game centered on static charges accumulated in Leyden jars.
Franklin postulated that electricity was not a dual-fluid friction phenomenon, but a single, continuous, omnipresent fluid.
He coined fundamental scientific terms still in standard use:
He determined that electrical interaction moved between positive poles (surplus fluid) and negative poles (deficient fluid).
French statesman Turgot celebrated Franklin's achievements with the Latin epigram:
"Eripuit caelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis" ("He snatched lightning from the skies and scepters from the hands of tyrants").
The Kite and Key Experiment:
Franklin hypothesized that lightning was identical to the static electric spark generated by Leyden jars, differing only in magnitude.
In mid-1752, Franklin and his -year-old son, William (contrary to historical illustrations showing William as a young boy), raised a silk kite fitted with a sharp wire point beneath a thundercloud.
Loose hemp fibers on the twine stood erect from static charging; touching his knuckle to an attached brass key produced a distinct spark, proving that lightning was a massive static electrical discharge.
This discovery led to the invention of the pointed lightning rod and proper grounding conductor systems to protect structures from fire.
Conservative clergymen in England, France, and the colonies denounced the lightning rod as an impious interference with divine retribution against sinners, a criticism Franklin rejected as superstition.
Imperial Agency, the Stamp Act Crisis, and Political Fracture
Mission to Great Britain (1757–1762):
At age , the Pennsylvania Assembly dispatched Franklin to London to resolve a tax standoff with the proprietary heirs of William Penn, who refused to pay taxes on their private landholdings.
Operating from lodgings on Craven Street, Franklin maintained an electrical laboratory near the Royal Society, establishing himself in British scientific and philosophical circles.
In Philadelphia, Deborah Franklin forcefully managed his affairs, including sending a protest letter to the British Commander-in-Chief, Lord Jeffrey Amherst, when she believed his administrative decrees infringed upon her husband's postmaster prerogatives.
Returning briefly to Pennsylvania, Franklin lost his assembly seat after consecutive terms by votes to the conservative Penn proprietary faction.
Second London Mission and the Stamp Act (1764–1775):
The Assembly returned Franklin to London in 1764 to petition King George III to convert Pennsylvania from a proprietary estate into a Royal Colony.
In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, taxing legal documents, periodicals, almanacs, pamphlets, and playing cards throughout the colonies.
Franklin initially failed to realize the intensity of colonial resistance and suggested friends for stamp collector posts.
When colonial riots erupted under the banner "No taxation without representation," Franklin shifted to lead the repeal campaign.
On February 13, 1766, Franklin underwent a four-hour interrogation before the House of Commons, answering questions.
Edmund Burke described the exchange as akin to a schoolmaster quizzing a panel of schoolboys.
Franklin insisted Americans viewed themselves as loyal Britons who would never take up arms unprovoked, but noted that the Stamp Act was inherently provocative; Parliament repealed the act within weeks.
The Hutchinson Letters and the Cockpit Humiliation:
In 1772, Franklin obtained confidential letters written by Thomas Hutchinson, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, and Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver.
The correspondence advised British ministers that colonial "English liberties" required abridgment to preserve order.
Franklin forwarded the documents to Boston leaders with instructions that they be circulated privately among reform committees.
The letters were leaked and published in Boston, prompting mass fury and an assembly petition demanding Hutchinson's removal.
To clear innocent acquaintances in London accused of leaking state secrets, Franklin publicly acknowledged his role.
On January 29, 1774, Franklin was summoned before the Privy Council in the Cockpit.
With Lord Gower presiding, British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn subjected Franklin to a severe, -minute verbal assault, denouncing him as an inciter of rebellion, a spy, and a common thief.
Franklin stood motionless and silent throughout the ordeal; the event shattered his commitment to the British Empire and transformed him into a committed American revolutionary.
The Revolutionary War and the French Alliance
Declaration of Independence:
Upon reaching Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, Franklin learned Deborah had suffered a fatal stroke while he was at sea and that fighting had begun at Lexington and Concord.
British authorities issued warrants for his arrest; his son William Franklin remained the Royal Governor of New Jersey and an active Loyalist, causing a permanent rupture between father and son.
Franklin broke ties with British correspondents, writing to his friend and printer William Strahan:
"You and I were long friends: You are now my enemy, and I am, Yours, B. Franklin."
Appointed to the Committee of Five tasked with drafting the Declaration of Independence, Franklin revised Thomas Jefferson's phrasing from "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident."
At the formal signing, in response to John Hancock's remark that they must hang together, Franklin quipped:
"Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Diplomatic Mission to Paris (1776–1785):
At age , afflicted by gout and severe kidney stones, Franklin sailed to France in late 1776 as an unrecognized commissioner.
He played to French romantic perceptions of American simplicity, discarding formal wigs for unadorned fur caps and plain brown cloth coats.
His residence at Passy outside Paris became an influential salon hub, celebrated by the French Enlightenment elite.
He managed complex intelligence operations, spy networks, privateering commissions, and covert arms smuggling coordinated through Pierre Beaumarchais.
Following the victory at Saratoga, Franklin secured formal French diplomatic recognition and concluded the military and commercial Treaties of Alliance on February 6, 1778.
Social and Romantic Circles in France:
Franklin formed notable relationships with prominent Parisian women:
Madame Brillon (Anne-Louise Boyvin d'Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy): A composer, pianist, and wife of an aristocrat years Franklin's junior; their flirtatious bond transitioned into a warm, paternal relationship where Franklin was called "Papa" and she "My dear child."
Madame Helvétius (Anne-Catherine de Ligniville d'Autricourt): The widow of the philosopher Claude Adrien Helvétius; she maintained an influential Enlightenment salon at Auteuil. Franklin made a lighthearted proposal of marriage to her, which she declined in favor of preserving her independence.
John Adams, serving as co-commissioner in Paris, was routinely offended by Franklin's casual domestic habits, tardy paperwork, and popularity among French women.
Treaty of Paris (1783):
Following the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay negotiated the definitive peace treaty with Great Britain.
At the signing on November 30, 1783, Franklin pointedly wore the same suit of blue Manchester velvet he had worn during his 1774 condemnation before the Privy Council.
Final Constitutional Work and Death
Constitutional Convention of 1787:
Returning to America in 1785 at age , Franklin served as President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania before participating as the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention.
He consistently used humor and calm reason to moderate disputes between large and small states.
At the close of the convention, he had a speech read aloud calling for unanimous delegate support:
"I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise… On this whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility—and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument."
Final Days and Passing:
In a letter to the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789, Franklin wrote:
"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
Bedridden and dying in Philadelphia, his daughter Sally expressed hope that he might yet recover, to which Franklin answered: "I hope not."
Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, at the age of .
George Washington wrote in tribute: "If to be venerated for benevolence, if to be admired for talents, if to be esteemed for patriotism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, can gratify the human mind, you must have the pleasing consolation to know that you have not lived in vain."
Colonial Sectional Conflicts: East versus West
Structural Mechanics of Frontier Rebellions:
Prior to the North-versus-South dynamic of the nineteenth century, early American domestic conflict operated on an East-versus-West sectional axis.
Backcountry frontier farmers faced distinct challenges compared to the commercial, legal, and political establishments of eastern tidewater regions.
Core grievances included:
Gross malapportionment in provincial assemblies (eastern counties held disproportionate legislative seats).
Eastern control over administrative and judicial appointments.
Eastern pacifism or indifference toward frontier military defense against Native American raids.
Rigid tax collections demanding scarce hard coin rather than agricultural commodities, followed by debt foreclosures and farm auctions.
Bacon's Rebellion (Virginia, 1676):
Leadership and Grievances: Led by Nathaniel Bacon, a Cambridge-educated frontier tobacco planter who broke with Royal Governor Sir William Berkeley.
Frontier settlers resented Berkeley's monopoly over the Indian fur trade and his refusal to authorize military campaigns against Native tribes along the western perimeter.
Bacon's followers held the view that "the only good Indian was a dead Indian," contrasting with Berkeley's policy of restrained reprisals.
Military Action: Bacon organized an unauthorized rebel army, attacked peaceful neighboring tribes, and then turned his forces against the colonial capital at Jamestown, burning it to the ground.
Resolution: Bacon died suddenly of dysentery (often described historically as "the bloody flux"); Berkeley quickly reestablished military control and executed key leaders.
Significance: Established a precedent wherein colonial frontiersmen resorted to armed insurrection to force eastern ruling establishments to address backcountry interests.
The Paxton Boys Uprising (Pennsylvania, 1763):
Context: Scots-Irish Presbyterian frontiersmen residing in Paxton Township (Lancaster County) felt vulnerable following Pontiac's War.
The Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly was dominated by pacifist Quakers who refused to finance militia garrisons or aggressive border defense.
Representation was heavily skewed: eastern counties held assembly seats while western frontier counties held only .
Atrocities and March on Philadelphia: In December 1763, the Paxton vigilantes raided and massacred a community of peaceful, converted Conestoga Indians at Lancaster.
When Christian Moravian Indians were evacuated to Philadelphia for sanctuary, an armed mob of approximately Paxton men marched eastward intending to storm the city.
Intervention: A municipal defense delegation headed by Benjamin Franklin confronted the Paxton Boys at Germantown and negotiated an agreement, averting violence.
Concessions: The colonial government reinstated official scalp bounties, establishing cash incentives for scalps taken from male, female, and child Native Americans.
The crisis prompted Quakers to begin withdrawing from the colonial legislature, and legislative districts were gradually redrawn to expand western political power.
The Regulator Movement (The Carolinas, 1760s–1771):
South Carolina Backcountry:
Frontier residents lacked courts, sheriffs, and legal infrastructure to combat organized bands of cattle rustlers and horse thieves.
Settlers formed vigilante groups called "Regulators" to enforce order and withheld tax payments until the eastern assembly established local courts and administrative representation.
North Carolina Rebellion:
Western farmers protested an extortionate tax system where corrupt local sheriffs and judicial appointees refused to accept crop produce for taxes, demanding hard specie that was virtually unavailable on the frontier.
Officials subsequently seized and auctioned off western farms to cover back taxes.
Regulators organized armed resistance, broke up county courts, assaulted corrupt sheriffs, and halted debt sales.
The colonial government passed the Johnston Riot Act, classifying the Regulators as traitors subject to capital punishment.
In May 1771, Royal Governor William Tryon led an army of militia against an unorganized force of Regulators at the Battle of Alamance.
The militia routed the Regulators; each side sustained fatalities. One rebel was hanged on the battlefield, were convicted of high treason, and were publicly executed.
Significance: Rebellions in both Carolinas showed that colonists were willing to withhold taxes and deploy armed force against non-responsive governments, anticipating methods used during the American Revolution.
Pontiac's War and Native Defense of the Old Northwest (1763–1766)
Strategic Origins of the Confederation:
Unlike colonial civil disturbances, Pontiac's War was a coordinated Native American campaign against British imperial expansion.
Following Great Britain's victory over France in the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War), the British gained nominal control over French outposts in the Old Northwest (the territory bounded by the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Ohio River).
French traders had cultivated trade partnerships and respected Native customs, whereas British authorities under General Jeffrey Amherst suspended the distribution of ammunition gifts and treated tribal leaders dismissively.
Pontiac's Leadership and Warfare:
Pontiac, an Ottawa war chief born near the French trading post at Detroit who assumed leadership in 1755, organized a multi-tribal alliance (including Ottawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Huron, Shawnee, and Delaware) to halt British encroachment.
Beginning in the spring of 1763, the confederacy attacked and captured nine British frontier forts, laying prolonged siege to Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt.
British forces countered with aggressive operations, including the deliberate dissemination of smallpox-infected blankets at Fort Pitt.
Aftermath and Murder:
Unable to secure French military backing, Pontiac concluded a formal peace treaty with British Indian Superintendent Sir William Johnson in 1766.
In 1769, Pontiac was assassinated near the settlement of Cahokia (in modern Illinois) by a Peoria warrior, an act attributed to personal grievances and British commercial bribery.
Questions & Discussion
Question / Topic: What was the dynamic between John Adams and Benjamin Franklin when rooming together during diplomatic missions?
Response: During their diplomatic assignments, Adams and Franklin shared lodgings and occasionally a bed to reduce travel expenses.
They clashed over bedroom ventilation: Franklin advocated for the health benefits of fresh air and would open the window, while Adams, wary of drafts and cold air, insisted on keeping it shut.
Franklin would often wait until Adams fell asleep before quietly opening the window.
Question / Topic: How accurate are media depictions like the HBO miniseries John Adams?
Response: The miniseries is based on David McCullough's historical biography.
Actor David Morse portrays George Washington.
The series depicts Adams's defense of British soldiers following the Boston Massacre, an action Adams later regarded as one of the most selfless services he ever rendered to his nation.
Question / Topic: How does the HBO series Rome compare in terms of historical realism?
Response: The production depicts ancient urban life without excessive romanticism, illustrating insulae (tenement apartments), street-level criminal organizations, and commercial hubs.
The ancient Greek agora served as an early urban precursor to the modern marketplace and shopping complex.
Question / Topic: Why was alcohol consumption so widespread in eighteenth-century America?
Response: Regular municipal water supplies and well water were frequently contaminated with biological pathogens.
Fermented beverages (cider, ale, wine, beer, and rum) were standard day-to-day drinks across all social classes to avoid waterborne illnesses.
Question / Topic: Who was David Rittenhouse?
Response: Rittenhouse was a self-taught Pennsylvania clockmaker, astronomer, mathematician, and instrument maker.
He built telescopes and precision surveying equipment used to establish the boundary lines between Pennsylvania and Maryland (prior to the Mason-Dixon survey).
He eventually became a professor of astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania despite possessing little formal university training.
Question / Topic: What is the structure of doctoral comprehensive examinations?
Response: Doctoral candidates complete extensive comprehensive qualifying exams before beginning their dissertations.
Typical formats include a -hour major exam and a -hour minor exam, requiring candidates to write essays synthesizing historical facts with extensive historiographical interpretations.
Question / Topic: Could mass modern tax strikes compel government policy changes?
Response: While a single individual refusing to pay taxes faces prosecution and imprisonment, coordinated collective refusal involving millions would disrupt governance.
However, highly individualistic societies struggle to organize collective financial strikes, and such resistance carries the risk of civil instability or civil conflict.