Benjamin Franklin (17 January 1706 - 17 April 1790) was an American statesman, scientist, publisher, inventor, and diplomat whose career spanned the colonial, Revolutionary, and early national periods of American history. He is among the most studied of the Founding Fathers, recognized for contributions across civic, scientific, and political life. Historians broadly agree on the outline of his biography and legacy, though assessments of his character, his relationship to slavery, and his ultimate political significance remain subjects of ongoing scholarly discussion.

Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the fifteenth of seventeen children of a tallow chandler. Largely self-educated, he was apprenticed to his brother James as a printer before relocating to Philadelphia in 1723. He established himself as a successful printer and publisher, founding The Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack, which circulated his aphorisms and practical philosophy widely through the colonies.

His scientific investigations, most famously his experiments demonstrating the electrical nature of lightning, earned him international recognition and membership in the Royal Society of London. His practical inventions - the lightning rod, bifocal lenses, and the Franklin stove among them - reflected a consistent orientation toward useful knowledge. For an account of his full biography, see Benjamin Franklin - History.

Franklin's public legacy is well-documented through an extensive surviving record of correspondence, publications, and official papers. Scholarly attention in recent decades has broadened from his political and scientific achievements to include his attitudes toward race and slavery - he owned enslaved people for much of his adult life, though he later became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society - and his complex personal relationships, including his estrangement from his loyalist son William Franklin.

His role at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 is well established: at 81 he was the oldest delegate, and his closing speech urging ratification despite reservations is frequently cited as a model of principled pragmatism. His diplomatic service in France during the Revolutionary War is credited by most historians as essential to securing the French alliance.

Debate continues over how to weigh the various dimensions of his life against one another - the civic moralist against the slaveholder, the egalitarian mythologizer against the self-promoter. These interpretive disputes are treated in the Viewpoints and Controversies sections below.

- Franklin as Enlightenment exemplar: Many historians and public commentators regard Franklin as the American embodiment of Enlightenment rationalism - empirical, pragmatic, skeptical of dogma, and committed to self-improvement and civic virtue. See benjamin-franklin-enlightenment-exemplar-viewpoint.

- Franklin as self-made myth: Some scholars argue that Franklin's famous autobiography constructed a deliberate public persona that obscured self-interest, social climbing, and moral inconsistency behind a rhetoric of industry and virtue. See benjamin-franklin-self-made-myth-viewpoint.

- Franklin as political pragmatist: A view emphasizing Franklin's career as a model of effective political negotiation - willing to compromise, read audiences, and subordinate ideology to outcome. Proponents point to his conduct at the Convention and in Paris. See benjamin-franklin-political-pragmatist-viewpoint.

- Franklin's legacy complicated by slavery: Critics argue that Franklin's slaveholding years and his long delay in opposing slavery materially undercut his professed values and must be weighted alongside his later abolitionist activity. See benjamin-franklin-slavery-legacy-viewpoint.

- Slaveholding and abolitionist record: Franklin owned enslaved people for approximately three decades before his late-life turn toward abolitionism; scholars dispute how to characterize the arc of his views and whether his eventual activism mitigates or is overshadowed by his earlier conduct. See benjamin-franklin-slaveholding-controversy.

- The Hutchinson Letters affair: Franklin's role in obtaining and transmitting private letters of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson to colonial leaders - leading to his public censure before the Privy Council in 1774 - raises questions about the boundaries of political espionage and personal ethics. See benjamin-franklin-hutchinson-letters-controversy.

- Relationship with William Franklin: Franklin's decision to break with and effectively abandon his loyalist son William during and after the Revolution is interpreted variously as principled patriotism, political self-protection, or personal coldness. See benjamin-franklin-william-franklin-controversy.

- Benjamin Franklin - History - Constitutional Convention of 1787 - Founding Fathers - United States - 18th Century History - Viewpoint: Franklin as Enlightenment Exemplar - Viewpoint: Franklin as Self-Made Myth - Viewpoint: Franklin as Political Pragmatist - Viewpoint: Franklin's Legacy Complicated by Slavery - Controversy: Slaveholding and Abolitionist Record - Controversy: The Hutchinson Letters Affair - Controversy: Relationship with William Franklin

1. Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003). 2. Edmund S. Morgan, Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002). 3. Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin Press, 2004). 4. David Waldstreicher, Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution (New York: Hill and Wang, 2004). 5. Sheila L. Skemp, William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). 6. H. W. Brands, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Doubleday, 2000).