Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and died on April 17, 1790. He became one of the most influential intellectuals of his time: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. He is remembered as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the first postmaster general.

Franklin came from a large family with deep roots in England and colonial Massachusetts. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, soaper, and candlemaker, and Benjamin was his fifteenth child overall. Franklin attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate. His formal schooling ended when he was ten, and he continued his education through wide reading. At twelve, he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer. When James founded The New-England Courant, Franklin secretly wrote for it under the name “Silence Dogood,” a middle-aged widow whose letters drew public attention. From early on, he connected learning, writing, and free speech.

Philadelphia became the center of Franklin’s working life. At age 23, he published The Pennsylvania Gazette, and he later became wealthy through that paper and Poor Richard’s Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders.” After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, known for revolutionary sentiments and criticism of British Parliament and the Crown. He also helped build institutions: he pioneered and became the first president of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and served as first secretary of the American Philosophical Society, then was elected its president in 1769.

As a scientist, Franklin’s studies of electricity made him a major figure in the American Enlightenment and in the history of physics. He charted and named the Gulf Stream current, and his inventions included the lightning rod, bifocals, the glass harmonica, and the Franklin stove. He also founded civic organizations, including the Library Company and Philadelphia’s first fire department. In 1753, he was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies, a role that allowed him to set up the first national communications network.

Franklin’s public work stretched across colonial, state, national, and international affairs. In London, as an agent for several colonies, he helped lead the successful effort to repeal the Stamp Act. He was admired as the first U.S. ambassador to France, where his diplomacy helped develop Franco-American relations and secure French aid for the American Revolution. He served as President of Pennsylvania from 1785 to 1788. Franklin was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris peace with Britain, and the Constitution. He also had a complicated record on slavery: from at least 1735 through later decades he owned at least seven slaves and ran slave sale advertisements, but by the late 1750s he began arguing against slavery and later became an active abolitionist who promoted education and integration for African Americans.

Franklin’s words still resonate because they sound practical, earned, and close to daily life. His sayings often turn large ideas into plain advice about work, debt, time, and judgment. “Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of” fits a man who moved between the print shop, the laboratory, public office, and diplomacy with restless energy. More than two centuries after his death, Franklin has been honored on the $100 bill, in the names of towns, counties, institutions, and corporations, and through the collection of more than 30,000 letters and documents in The Papers of Benjamin Franklin.