Born in Boston in 1706, Ben Franklin was a printer, a philosopher, a diplomat, and a scientist. He signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

As a boy, Franklin published under the pseudonym Silence Dogood and quickly becoming an accomplished printer. He published Poor Richard’s Almanac, a publication read widely throughout the colonies, and the Pennsylvania Gazzette. He became quite wealthy and established the nation’s first subscription library in Philadelphia.

He spent almost all of the time between 1757 and 1775 in England. He began as an agent for Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, later becoming an advocate for the colonies during The Stamp Act controversy.

The free-spirited type, Franklin said that those who give up essential liberty for a little security deserve and receive neither.

Franklin was a prolific inventor: He invented the lighting rod, bifocals, and an odometer for carriages.

By 1775, Franklin had either freed his slaves or they had escaped. He joined the group of Americans who did not own slaves, a group that included John Adams. (Adams never owned slaves.) 

When war broke out, Franklin bitterly parted company with his son, the loyalist governor of New Jersey.

During the years 1776 through 1785, he served as a diplomat to France, and was by many accounts a philanderer. It was during this time that he met Madame Brillon and Madame Helvetius, ladies with whom he had amicable relations.

Returning to America, Franklin attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787. When someone at the Convention asked what type of government was to be established by the Constitution, Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Franklin became President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery in 1787. He passed in 1790.