Benjamin Franklin
Born: January 17, 1706
Died: April 17, 1790
Colony/State: Pennsylvania
Occupation / Public Role: Printer, writer, scientist, inventor, diplomat, legislator
Contribution to the Founding Era: Delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the committee that prepared the Declaration, diplomat to France during the Revolution, and one of the few men to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and became one of the most famous figures in colonial America long before independence. He had little formal schooling, learned the printing trade, moved to Philadelphia, and built a career as a printer and publisher. He founded the Pennsylvania Gazette and began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1732, helping make his name known throughout the colonies.
Franklin’s public career ranged far beyond printing. He served in the Pennsylvania Assembly, became postmaster of Philadelphia and later deputy postmaster general for the colonies, and earned international fame for his scientific work, especially on electricity. By the time of the Revolution, he was already one of the best-known Americans in the Atlantic world.
As imperial tensions grew, Franklin’s politics changed. The National Archives notes that while serving in London as an agent for several colonies, he underwent a political transformation as conflict with Britain deepened. He returned to America in 1775, served in the Second Continental Congress, and became one of the five men appointed to prepare a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft, but Franklin was part of the committee that revised and presented it. He then signed the Declaration as one of Pennsylvania’s delegates.
Franklin’s importance to the Revolutionary cause did not stop there. Congress sent him to France in 1776, where he became one of the most important American diplomats of the war. The U.S. House notes that he served as diplomatic commissioner and later minister to France, while Britannica notes that he helped secure French support for the American cause and was one of the negotiators of the peace treaty with Great Britain.
After the war, Franklin remained active in public life. He served as president of the executive council of Pennsylvania and attended the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, where he also signed the United States Constitution. That makes him one of the few men who signed both of the nation’s central founding documents. Franklin died in Philadelphia in 1790 at the age of eighty-four.
Benjamin Franklin is one of the giants of the American founding. Printer, scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, signer, framer — the man collected major roles the way some people collect pocket change. But unlike pocket change, every one of his roles mattered.
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