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{{Short description|American Founding Father and polymath (1706–1790)}}{{Other uses|Benjamin Franklin (disambiguation)}}
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{{Use American English|date=February 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Benjamin Franklin
| honorific_suffix    = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS|FRSA|FRSE}}
| image               = Joseph Siffrein Duplessis - Benjamin Franklin - Google Art Project.jpg
| caption             = Portrait by [[Joseph Duplessis]], 1785
| office              = 6th [[Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania#Presidents|President of Pennsylvania]]
| vicepresident       = {{ubl|[[Charles Biddle]]|[[Peter Muhlenberg]]|[[David Redick]]}}
| term_start          = October 18, 1785
| term_end            = November 5, 1788
| predecessor         = [[John Dickinson]]
| successor           = [[Thomas Mifflin]]
| office1             = [[United States Minister to Sweden]]
| appointer1          = [[Congress of the Confederation]]
| term_start1         = September 28, 1782
| term_end1           = April 3, 1783
| predecessor1        = ''Position established''
| successor1          = [[Jonathan Russell]]
| office2             = [[United States Minister to France]]
| appointer2          = [[Continental Congress]]
| term_start2         = March 23, 1779
| term_end2           = May 17, 1785
| predecessor2        = ''Position established''
| successor2          = [[Thomas Jefferson]]
| order3              = 1st
| office3             = United States Postmaster General
| term_start3         = July 26, 1775
| term_end3           = November 7, 1776
| predecessor3        = ''Position established''
| successor3          = [[Richard Bache]]
| office4             = Delegate from [[Pennsylvania]] to the [[Second Continental Congress]]
| term_start4         = May 10, 1775
| term_end4           = October 26, 1776
| office5             = [[Postmaster General of British America]]
| term_start5         = August 10, 1753
| term_end5           = January 31, 1774
| predecessor5        = ''Position established''
| successor5          = ''Vacant''
| office6             = [[Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly|Speaker of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]]
| term_start6         = May 26, 1764
| term_end6           = October 11, 1764
| predecessor6        = [[Isaac Norris (statesman)|Isaac Norris]]
| successor6          = Isaac Norris
| order8              = 1st
| office8             = President of the University of Pennsylvania
| term_start8         = November 13, 1749
| term_end8           = May 24, 1754
| successor8          = [[William Smith (Episcopal priest)|William Smith]]
| predecessor8        = ''Position established''
| office7             = Member of the [[Province_of_Pennsylvania#Government|Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]] from [[Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania]]
| term_start7         = August 13, 1751
| term_end7           = October 11, 1764
| successor7          = 
| predecessor7        = 
| office11            = 21st Chief Clerk of the [[Province_of_Pennsylvania#Government|Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]]
| term_start11        = October 14, 1736
| term_end11          = May 13, 1751
| successor11         = [[William Franklin]]
| predecessor11       = Joseph Growden Jr.
| office12            = President of the [[Pennsylvania_Abolition_Society|Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage]]
| term_start12        = April 23, 1787
| term_end12          = April 17, 1790
| successor12         = 
| predecessor12       = 
| birth_date          = {{OldStyleDateDY|January 17,|1706|January 6}}{{refn|group=Note|name=birthdate}}
| birth_place         = [[Boston]], Massachusetts Bay, British America
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1790|4|17|1706|1|17}}
| death_place         = [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, U.S.
| resting_place       = [[Christ Church Burial Ground]]
| party               = [[Independent politician|Independent]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Deborah Read]]|September 1, 1730|1774|reason=died}}
| children            = {{hlist|[[William Franklin|William]]|[[Francis Folger Franklin|Francis]]|[[Sarah Franklin Bache|Sarah]]}}
| parents             = {{ubl|[[Josiah Franklin]]|[[Abiah Folger]]}}
| signature           = Benjamin Franklin Signature.svg
| education           = [[Boston Latin School]]
}}

'''Benjamin Franklin''' ({{OldStyleDateDY|January 17,|1706|January 6, 1705}}{{refn|group=Note|name=birthdate}}{{spaced ndash}}April 17, 1790) was an American [[polymath]]: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and [[Political philosophy|political philosopher]].<ref name="Britannica">[[#britannica|Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021]]</ref> Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]]; a [[Committee of Five|drafter]] and signer of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]; and the first [[United States Postmaster General|postmaster general]].<ref name=Morris1973>{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Richard B. |author-link=Richard B. Morris |title=Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-06-090454-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/sevenwhoshapedou00morr/page/n15/mode/2up |pages=1, 5–30}}</ref>

Born in the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], Franklin became a successful [[Early American publishers and printers|newspaper editor and printer]] in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'' at age 23.<ref>{{cite book |first=H.W. |last=Brands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2bPCEbMAvwC&pg=PA390 |title=The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |year=2010 |page=390 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=978-0-307-75494-3 }}</ref> He became wealthy publishing this and ''[[Poor Richard's Almanack]]'', which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders".<ref name="Goodrich1829">{{cite book|first=Charles A. |last=Goodrich|url=https://archive.org/details/livessignerstod02goodgoog|title=Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence|date=1829|publisher=W. Reed & Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/livessignerstod02goodgoog/page/n280 267]|access-date=June 7, 2013}}</ref> After 1767, he was associated with the ''[[Pennsylvania Chronicle]]'', a newspaper known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the policies of the [[Parliament of Great Britain|British Parliament]] and [[the Crown]].<ref name="Smithsonian+Constitutional Post">{{cite web|title=William Goddard and the Constitutional Post|url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/out-of-the-mails-hugh-finlays-journey/william-goddard%E2%80%99s-constitutional-post|access-date=October 19, 2010|publisher=[[Smithsonian National Postal Museum]]}}</ref> He pioneered and was the first president of the [[Academy and College of Philadelphia]], which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the [[American Philosophical Society]] and was elected its president in 1769. He was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753,<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Benjamin Franklin, Postmaster General |website=United States Postal Service |url=https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pmg-franklin.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pmg-franklin.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=May 29, 2021}}</ref> which enabled him to set up the first national communications network.

Franklin was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. He became a hero in America when, as an agent in London for several colonies, he spearheaded the repeal of the unpopular [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act]] by the British Parliament. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired as the first [[List of ambassadors of the United States to France|U.S. ambassador to France]] and was a major figure in the development of positive [[France–United States relations|Franco{{ndash}}American relations]]. His efforts proved vital in securing French aid for the [[American Revolution]]. From 1785 to 1788, he served as [[Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania#Presidents|President of Pennsylvania]]. At some points in his life, he owned slaves and ran "for sale" ads for slaves in his newspaper, but by the late 1750s, he began arguing against [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], became an active [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], and promoted the education and [[Racial integration|integration]] of African Americans into U.S. society.<ref name="Nash pp. 618">[[#nash2006|Nash, 2006]], pp. 618–638.</ref>

As a scientist, Franklin's studies of electricity made him a major figure in the [[American Enlightenment]] and the [[history of physics]]. He also charted and named the [[Gulf Stream]] current. His numerous important inventions include the [[lightning rod]], [[bifocals]], [[glass harmonica]] and the [[Franklin stove]].<ref>[[#institute|Franklin Institute, Essay]]</ref> He founded many [[civic organization]]s, including the [[Library Company of Philadelphia|Library Company]], the [[University of Pennsylvania]],{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}} and [[Philadelphia]]'s first [[Union Fire Company|fire department]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Burt |first=Nathaniel |title=The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8122-1693-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9ueb6r1uXgC&pg=PA142 |page=142}}</ref> 
Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for [[Thirteen Colonies|colonial unity]]. He was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] peace with Britain, and the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]]. Foundational in defining the American ethos, Franklin has been called "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become".{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=491–492}}

Franklin's life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and his status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen him honored for more than two centuries after his death on the [[United States one-hundred-dollar bill|$100 bill]] and in the names of [[USS Franklin|warships]], [[List of places named for Benjamin Franklin|many towns and counties, educational institutions and corporations]], as well as in numerous [[Benjamin Franklin in popular culture|cultural references]] and a portrait in the [[Oval Office]]. His more than 30,000 letters and documents have been collected in ''[[The Papers of Benjamin Franklin]].'' [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot]] said of him: "Eripuit fulmen cœlo, mox sceptra tyrannis" ("He snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants").<ref>{{cite web| title=To the Genius of Franklin| url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/50130| work=[[Philadelphia Museum of Art]]}}</ref>

==Ancestry==
Benjamin Franklin's father, [[Josiah Franklin]], was a [[tallow]] [[Chandlery|chandler]], [[soaper]], and [[candle]]maker. Josiah Franklin was born at [[Ecton, Northamptonshire]], England, on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith and farmer, and his wife, Jane White. Benjamin's father and all four of his grandparents were born in England.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Huang|first=Nian-Sheng|date=2000|title=Franklin's Father Josiah: Life of a Colonial Boston Tallow Chandler, 1657–1745|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1586007|journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society|volume=90|issue=3|pages=i–155|doi=10.2307/1586007|jstor=1586007|issn=0065-9746|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Josiah Franklin had a total of seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to [[Boston]] in 1683; they had three children before emigration and four after. Following her death, Josiah married [[Abiah Folger]] on July 9, 1689, in the [[Old South Meeting House]] by [[Samuel Willard|Reverend Samuel Willard]], and had ten children with her. Benjamin, their eighth child, was Josiah Franklin's fifteenth child overall, and his tenth and final son.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Benjamin Franklin's mother, Abiah, was born in [[Nantucket]], [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], on August 15, 1667, to [[Peter Folger (Nantucket settler)|Peter Folger]], a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, [[Mary Morrell Folger]], a former [[Indentured servitude|indentured servant]]. Mary Folger came from a Puritan family that was among the first [[Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)|Pilgrims]] to flee to Massachusetts for [[Freedom of religion|religious freedom]], sailing for [[Boston]] in 1635 after King [[Charles I of England]] had begun persecuting Puritans. Her father Peter was "the sort of rebel destined to transform colonial America."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=14}} As [[Court clerk|clerk of the court]], he was arrested on February 10, 1676, and jailed on February 19 for his inability to pay bail. He spent over a year and a half in jail.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nantucket lands and landowners |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/04017892/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
===Boston===
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| image1 = Benjamin Franklin Birthplace 2.JPG
| caption1 = An 1881 illustration of Franklin's birthplace on [[Milk Street, Boston|Milk Street]] in [[Boston]]
| image2 = Benjamin Franklin Birthplace.jpg
| caption2 = A May 2008 photograph of Franklin's birthplace in Boston, commemorated with a [[bust (sculpture)|bust]] of Franklin atop the building's second-floor façade
}}
Franklin was born on [[Milk Street, Boston|Milk Street]] in [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]] on January 17, 1707,{{refn|group=Note|name=birthdate| Contemporary birth records which used the Julian calendar and the [[New Year#Annunciation Style|Annunciation Style]] of enumerating years, recorded his birth as January 6, 1706.<ref>Registry of Births within the Town of Boston N.E.1707 brought in and entered Anno 1708" [https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/43472019?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a2238576d6e487a5a376b34395765775068686f774b793744556e5977435669722f752b346571734357536f593d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d/ Ancestry database] image 60; Original Data Source, Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute.</ref>{{sfn|Wood|2005|p=17}}}} and [[Infant baptism|baptized]] at the [[Old South Meeting House]] in Boston. As a child growing up along the [[Charles River]], Franklin recalled that he was "generally the leader among the boys."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=16}}

Franklin's father wanted him to attend school with the clergy but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attended [[Boston Latin School]] but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career"<ref name="autobio">{{cite book |last= Franklin |first= Benjamin |title= Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qW4VAAAAYAAJ |access-date=February 1, 2011 |series= Macmillan's pocket English and American classics |orig-year= 1771 |year= 1901 |publisher=Macmillan |location= New York |page= vi |chapter= Introduction|isbn= 9780758302939 }}<!-- Note: the introduction of this edition is the source for this quote; please do not change the edition without verifying the quote remains sourced. --></ref> for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time, and at 12 he became an [[apprenticeship|apprentice]] to his brother James, a printer, who taught him the printing trade. When Benjamin was 15, James founded ''[[The New-England Courant]]'', which was the third newspaper founded in Boston.<ref name="Bernhard 2007 p. 11">{{cite book | last=Bernhard | first=J. | title=Porcupine, Picayune, & Post: How Newspapers Get Their Names | publisher=University of Missouri Press | series=EBL-Schweitzer | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-8262-6601-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oO5fWi6dikC&pg=PA11 | access-date=June 1, 2023 | page=11}}</ref>

When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "[[Silence Dogood]]", a middle-aged widow. Mrs. Dogood's letters were published and became a subject of conversation around town. Neither James nor the ''Courant''{{'s}} readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Benjamin when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin was an advocate of free speech from an early age. When his brother was jailed for three weeks in 1722 for publishing material unflattering to [[Samuel Shute|the governor]], young Franklin took over the newspaper and had Mrs. Dogood proclaim, quoting ''[[Cato's Letters]]'', "Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=32}} Franklin left his apprenticeship without his brother's permission, and in so doing became a fugitive.<ref name="Seelye Selby 2018 p. 394">{{cite book | last1=Seelye | first1=J.E. | last2=Selby | first2=S. | title=Shaping North America: From Exploration to the American Revolution [3 volumes] | publisher=ABC-CLIO | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-4408-3669-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgVnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA394 | access-date=June 1, 2023 | page=394}}</ref>

===Moves to Philadelphia and London===
At age 17, Franklin ran away to [[Philadelphia]], seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived, he worked in several printing shops there, but he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects in any of these jobs. After a few months, while working in one printing house, Pennsylvania governor [[Sir William Keith, 4th Baronet|Sir William Keith]] convinced him to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. Discovering that Keith's promises of backing a newspaper were empty, he worked as a [[Typesetting|typesetter]] in a printer's shop in what is today the Lady Chapel of [[St Bartholomew-the-Great|Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great]] in the [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]] area of London, which had at that time been deconsecrated. He returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of [[Thomas Denham]], an English merchant who had emigrated but returned to England, and who employed Franklin as a clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper in his business.<ref name="vandoren">[[Carl Van Doren|Carl]] Van Doren, ''Benjamin Franklin''. (1945). pages 252–253</ref>

===Junto and library===
[[File:Franklin - ita, 1825 - 766672 R (cropped).jpeg|thumb|''La scuola della economia e della morale'', an 1825 sketch of Franklin]]

In 1727, at age 21, Franklin formed the [[Junto (club)|Junto]], a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community." The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite journal | last1  = Mumford | first1 = Michael D. | s2cid = 143550175 | year = 2002 | title = Social innovation: ten cases from Benjamin Franklin | journal = Creativity Resel