1 00:00:10,970 --> 00:00:14,350 MAN AS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: Histories of Lives are seldom entertaining, 2 00:00:14,515 --> 00:00:19,145 unless they contain something either admirable or exemplar. 3 00:00:19,311 --> 00:00:22,361 Know then, That I am an Enemy to Vice, 4 00:00:22,523 --> 00:00:24,283 and a Friend to Vertue. 5 00:00:24,442 --> 00:00:27,572 A mortal Enemy to arbitrary Government 6 00:00:27,737 --> 00:00:30,027 and unlimited Power. 7 00:00:30,197 --> 00:00:31,907 I am naturally very jealous 8 00:00:32,074 --> 00:00:34,914 for the Rights and Liberties of my Country; 9 00:00:35,077 --> 00:00:39,167 and the least appearance of an Incroachment on those invaluable Priviledges, 10 00:00:39,331 --> 00:00:42,921 is apt to make my Blood boil exceedingly. 11 00:00:43,085 --> 00:00:46,165 [THUNDER] Benjamin Franklin. 12 00:00:46,338 --> 00:00:50,548 ♪ 13 00:00:50,718 --> 00:00:52,048 MAN: Franklin is, by far, 14 00:00:52,219 --> 00:00:54,559 the most approachable of our Founders. 15 00:00:54,722 --> 00:00:56,432 He's not somebody made of stone, 16 00:00:56,599 --> 00:00:59,389 like a George Washington. 17 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:01,940 Franklin was pretty simple in his moral code. 18 00:01:02,104 --> 00:01:04,694 He was driven by a desire to pour forth 19 00:01:04,857 --> 00:01:07,437 benefits for the common good. 20 00:01:07,610 --> 00:01:09,360 But there's a lot in Benjamin Franklin 21 00:01:09,528 --> 00:01:11,238 that makes you flinch, 22 00:01:11,405 --> 00:01:14,825 and we see Franklin not as a perfect person, 23 00:01:14,992 --> 00:01:16,582 but somebody evolving to see 24 00:01:16,744 --> 00:01:19,004 if he could become more perfect. 25 00:01:21,165 --> 00:01:22,995 NARRATOR: He was a teenage runaway 26 00:01:23,167 --> 00:01:25,627 who achieved such remarkable success 27 00:01:25,795 --> 00:01:29,125 that his example would be handed down for generations 28 00:01:29,298 --> 00:01:33,388 as the embodiment of the American dream. 29 00:01:33,552 --> 00:01:37,642 He was a printer, a publisher, and a writer, 30 00:01:37,807 --> 00:01:41,727 producing everything from essays on politics and religion 31 00:01:41,894 --> 00:01:44,814 to biting satires and words of wisdom 32 00:01:44,980 --> 00:01:47,860 that would endure forever. 33 00:01:48,025 --> 00:01:50,395 [THUNDER] He was a prolific inventor 34 00:01:50,569 --> 00:01:53,409 and a scientist whose pioneering discoveries 35 00:01:53,572 --> 00:01:57,582 would make him the most famous American in the world. 36 00:01:57,743 --> 00:01:59,253 He was a civic leader, 37 00:01:59,411 --> 00:02:02,041 the founder of a library and a college, 38 00:02:02,206 --> 00:02:04,376 who introduced a host of improvements 39 00:02:04,542 --> 00:02:08,962 that made the lives of everyday people better. 40 00:02:09,130 --> 00:02:11,130 He embraced the Enlightenment belief 41 00:02:11,298 --> 00:02:13,758 in the perfectibility of human beings; 42 00:02:13,926 --> 00:02:17,886 but no one understood their foibles and failings, 43 00:02:18,055 --> 00:02:21,135 including his own, better than he did. 44 00:02:21,308 --> 00:02:23,438 ♪ 45 00:02:23,602 --> 00:02:28,022 He also owned and enslaved human beings 46 00:02:28,190 --> 00:02:31,280 and benefited from the institution of slavery. 47 00:02:32,653 --> 00:02:35,413 [GUNSHOT] He was a reluctant revolutionary 48 00:02:35,573 --> 00:02:39,793 who became an indispensable founder of a new nation; 49 00:02:39,952 --> 00:02:41,372 helped craft the document 50 00:02:41,537 --> 00:02:44,537 that declared his country's independence; 51 00:02:44,707 --> 00:02:46,827 and then did as much as anyone 52 00:02:47,001 --> 00:02:49,751 to secure the victory that assured it. 53 00:02:51,338 --> 00:02:53,298 And he guided the complicated compromises 54 00:02:53,465 --> 00:02:56,385 that created his nation's Constitution, 55 00:02:56,552 --> 00:03:01,772 then tried to rectify its central failing. 56 00:03:01,932 --> 00:03:05,232 MAN: He constantly remade himself 57 00:03:05,394 --> 00:03:08,694 from apprentice, to printer, to scientist, 58 00:03:08,856 --> 00:03:13,896 to government official, to revolutionary, to abolitionist. 59 00:03:14,069 --> 00:03:16,699 He never was finished with himself. 60 00:03:16,864 --> 00:03:19,954 He always thought that he was a work in progress. 61 00:03:20,117 --> 00:03:22,907 NARRATOR: He could be funny and unforgiving; 62 00:03:23,078 --> 00:03:25,328 folksy and philosophical; 63 00:03:25,497 --> 00:03:28,457 generous and shrewdly calculating; 64 00:03:28,626 --> 00:03:32,496 broadminded, yet deeply prejudiced; 65 00:03:32,671 --> 00:03:36,261 a family man, who spent years away from his wife 66 00:03:36,425 --> 00:03:38,295 and let political differences 67 00:03:38,469 --> 00:03:41,849 destroy his relationship with his son. 68 00:03:43,599 --> 00:03:45,269 He concealed those contradictions behind 69 00:03:45,434 --> 00:03:49,154 a carefully crafted public image. 70 00:03:49,313 --> 00:03:51,403 MAN: He's a Puritan who then becomes 71 00:03:51,565 --> 00:03:54,605 the leading figure in the Enlightenment. 72 00:03:54,777 --> 00:03:56,277 So that he stands astride 73 00:03:56,445 --> 00:03:59,485 so many contradictions in his own life, 74 00:03:59,657 --> 00:04:00,987 that he understands them and they don't become 75 00:04:01,158 --> 00:04:03,288 contradictions for him. 76 00:04:03,452 --> 00:04:07,292 They become some seamless web of insight. 77 00:04:07,456 --> 00:04:09,286 MAN: He wrote so much. He wrote so well. 78 00:04:09,458 --> 00:04:12,418 He's somebody that we need to know about. 79 00:04:12,586 --> 00:04:16,046 He can put us in touch with the sensibilities 80 00:04:16,215 --> 00:04:19,335 of the 18th century in a way that makes it 81 00:04:19,510 --> 00:04:24,390 both accessible and, yet, captures its remoteness. 82 00:04:24,556 --> 00:04:26,176 [THUNDER] WOMAN: Franklin is endlessly, 83 00:04:26,350 --> 00:04:28,350 endlessly interesting. 84 00:04:28,519 --> 00:04:30,149 He is the only Founding Father who 85 00:04:30,312 --> 00:04:31,772 evidently had a sense of humor, 86 00:04:31,939 --> 00:04:33,729 who was evidently human, 87 00:04:33,899 --> 00:04:35,479 who evidently had a sex life. 88 00:04:35,651 --> 00:04:37,241 And there's so much about him that makes him 89 00:04:37,403 --> 00:04:39,243 seem approachable, on the one hand, 90 00:04:39,405 --> 00:04:41,735 and super-human on the other hand. 91 00:04:41,907 --> 00:04:46,077 NARRATOR: "Let all men know thee," Benjamin Franklin said, 92 00:04:46,245 --> 00:04:48,995 "but no man know thee thoroughly." 93 00:04:51,083 --> 00:04:54,343 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I never intend to wrap my Talent in a Napkin. 94 00:04:54,503 --> 00:04:58,633 To be brief; I am courteous and affable, good humor'd 95 00:04:58,799 --> 00:05:00,549 unless I am first provok'd, 96 00:05:00,718 --> 00:05:04,718 and handsome, and sometimes witty. 97 00:05:04,888 --> 00:05:06,518 If you would not be forgotten, 98 00:05:06,682 --> 00:05:09,352 as soon as you are dead and rotten, 99 00:05:09,518 --> 00:05:11,518 either write things worth reading, 100 00:05:11,687 --> 00:05:17,317 or do things worth the writing. Benjamin Franklin. 101 00:05:17,484 --> 00:05:23,494 ♪ 102 00:05:24,742 --> 00:05:29,252 ♪ 103 00:05:29,413 --> 00:05:31,543 NARRATOR: Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston 104 00:05:31,707 --> 00:05:34,667 on January 17, 1706, 105 00:05:34,835 --> 00:05:39,085 the youngest son and 15th child of Josiah Franklin, 106 00:05:39,256 --> 00:05:41,216 who had come from England 107 00:05:41,383 --> 00:05:45,803 to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1683. 108 00:05:45,971 --> 00:05:48,431 Josiah made candles and soap 109 00:05:48,599 --> 00:05:51,559 and became a respected member of South Church, 110 00:05:51,727 --> 00:05:56,357 one of the town's 3 congregations of Puritans. 111 00:05:56,523 --> 00:05:59,233 When his first wife died in childbirth, 112 00:05:59,401 --> 00:06:02,531 Josiah married Abiah Folger of Nantucket, 113 00:06:02,696 --> 00:06:06,236 who came from a family of free-thinkers. 114 00:06:06,408 --> 00:06:09,498 Benjamin would be her eighth child. 115 00:06:11,288 --> 00:06:13,458 He grew up in a 4-room house 116 00:06:13,624 --> 00:06:16,004 where the dinner table was always crowded, 117 00:06:16,168 --> 00:06:21,168 and often included friends his pious and serious-minded father 118 00:06:21,340 --> 00:06:23,970 invited over for conversation. 119 00:06:25,344 --> 00:06:28,354 From the start, the boy was precocious. 120 00:06:28,514 --> 00:06:31,434 He was reading the Bible by age 5. 121 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:35,560 His sister Jane recalled that he "studied incessantly" 122 00:06:35,729 --> 00:06:39,109 and "was addicted to all kinds of reading." 123 00:06:39,274 --> 00:06:41,534 But he was also irreverent. 124 00:06:41,693 --> 00:06:45,613 He found the long prayers before each meal tedious 125 00:06:45,781 --> 00:06:49,161 and suggested his father simply say grace once 126 00:06:49,326 --> 00:06:52,696 over the entire winter's supply of food. 127 00:06:52,871 --> 00:06:58,841 "It would be," young Benjamin said, "a vast saving of time." 128 00:06:59,002 --> 00:07:01,512 ♪ 129 00:07:01,672 --> 00:07:03,262 NARRATOR: He and his boyhood friends 130 00:07:03,424 --> 00:07:06,514 fished and frolicked in a nearby pond. 131 00:07:06,677 --> 00:07:09,507 An avid swimmer, he designed rudimentary fins 132 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:13,270 to propel himself faster across the water; 133 00:07:13,434 --> 00:07:15,774 other times, he floated on his back 134 00:07:15,936 --> 00:07:20,356 and let himself be pulled along by a kite. 135 00:07:20,524 --> 00:07:22,864 Josiah initially thought his son 136 00:07:23,026 --> 00:07:24,696 should study for the ministry 137 00:07:24,862 --> 00:07:28,242 and enrolled him at age 8 in the Boston school 138 00:07:28,407 --> 00:07:32,117 that prepared students for Harvard College. 139 00:07:32,286 --> 00:07:35,206 But the academy proved too expensive, 140 00:07:35,372 --> 00:07:37,922 and eager to have another set of hands, 141 00:07:38,083 --> 00:07:41,673 his father put him to work in the family's candle shop. 142 00:07:41,837 --> 00:07:46,627 He was 10 years old; his schooling was over. 143 00:07:48,010 --> 00:07:51,560 BRANDS: I think it was crucial to Franklin's success 144 00:07:51,722 --> 00:07:54,272 that he had very little formal education. 145 00:07:55,767 --> 00:07:58,147 When people go through formal schools, 146 00:07:58,312 --> 00:08:00,772 they learn what you're supposed to know. 147 00:08:00,939 --> 00:08:04,859 They also learn what you don't have to know. 148 00:08:05,027 --> 00:08:06,567 With Franklin, he never knew what he didn't have to know, 149 00:08:06,737 --> 00:08:08,607 so, he assumed he had to know everything. 150 00:08:08,780 --> 00:08:11,280 ♪ 151 00:08:11,450 --> 00:08:14,240 NARRATOR: In 1718, at age 12, 152 00:08:14,411 --> 00:08:16,711 Franklin began the work that would define 153 00:08:16,872 --> 00:08:18,252 the rest of his life. 154 00:08:18,415 --> 00:08:20,705 He signed a 9-year apprenticeship, 155 00:08:20,876 --> 00:08:24,416 legally indenturing himself to his older brother James, 156 00:08:24,588 --> 00:08:28,798 who had opened a printing shop in Boston. 157 00:08:28,967 --> 00:08:30,967 Printing was an amazing business if you were 158 00:08:31,136 --> 00:08:35,516 both clever with your hands and good at thinking. 159 00:08:35,682 --> 00:08:39,142 Printers are setting type upside-down and backward. 160 00:08:39,311 --> 00:08:42,561 And you have to be really hyper-literate to understand 161 00:08:42,731 --> 00:08:44,361 how language works that way, 162 00:08:44,525 --> 00:08:45,815 and to correct things as you go along, 163 00:08:45,984 --> 00:08:47,694 and get it right. 164 00:08:47,861 --> 00:08:50,451 NARRATOR: Handling the heavy sets of lead type 165 00:08:50,614 --> 00:08:53,244 strengthened and broadened his shoulders. 166 00:08:53,408 --> 00:08:55,238 Having access to books 167 00:08:55,410 --> 00:08:59,370 strengthened and liberated his mind. 168 00:08:59,540 --> 00:09:01,500 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Often I sat up in my room 169 00:09:01,667 --> 00:09:03,787 reading the greatest part of the night, 170 00:09:03,961 --> 00:09:06,211 when the book was borrowed in the evening and had to be 171 00:09:06,380 --> 00:09:09,880 returned early in the morning lest it should be missed. 172 00:09:10,050 --> 00:09:13,300 And all the little money that came into my hands 173 00:09:13,470 --> 00:09:16,430 was ever laid out in books. 174 00:09:17,641 --> 00:09:19,351 WOMAN: Here was a kid who only had 175 00:09:19,518 --> 00:09:22,938 two years of formal education, ever. 176 00:09:23,105 --> 00:09:28,565 So, what did he do? He taught himself how to write. 177 00:09:28,735 --> 00:09:31,855 NARRATOR: He composed poetry-- including a ballad 178 00:09:32,030 --> 00:09:36,660 commemorating the recent killing of Blackbeard the pirate. 179 00:09:36,827 --> 00:09:39,037 He read articles from "The Spectator," 180 00:09:39,204 --> 00:09:40,834 a London periodical, 181 00:09:40,998 --> 00:09:43,538 and, on paper salvaged from the print shop, 182 00:09:43,709 --> 00:09:47,299 attempted to reproduce them by memory. 183 00:09:47,462 --> 00:09:51,222 He stayed up late at night and rose early each morning 184 00:09:51,383 --> 00:09:54,763 to continue his reading before the shop opened. 185 00:09:54,928 --> 00:10:01,688 "I was," Franklin said, "extremely ambitious." 186 00:10:01,852 --> 00:10:05,612 In 1721, his brother James decided to publish 187 00:10:05,772 --> 00:10:09,612 his own weekly newspaper, "The New-England Courant." 188 00:10:11,194 --> 00:10:14,494 From its inception, the paper courted controversy. 189 00:10:14,656 --> 00:10:16,906 Its first issue attacked Cotton Mather, 190 00:10:17,075 --> 00:10:20,195 Boston's pre-eminent preacher and the colony's 191 00:10:20,370 --> 00:10:23,500 strict and severe moral authority. 192 00:10:23,665 --> 00:10:26,165 Mather called the newspaper wicked, 193 00:10:26,335 --> 00:10:29,755 filled with immorality, and lies. 194 00:10:29,921 --> 00:10:32,091 What James Franklin does is he creates 195 00:10:32,257 --> 00:10:36,677 the first real independent newspaper in America. 196 00:10:36,845 --> 00:10:39,505 His paper, in Boston, is, quote, 197 00:10:39,681 --> 00:10:41,181 "Not published by Authority." 198 00:10:41,350 --> 00:10:44,850 All the others, you were given a stamp of authority. 199 00:10:45,020 --> 00:10:49,110 NARRATOR: On April 2, 1722, an essay appeared 200 00:10:49,274 --> 00:10:51,744 over the name of Silence Dogood, 201 00:10:51,902 --> 00:10:55,032 who claimed to be a widowed woman from the countryside, 202 00:10:55,197 --> 00:10:57,617 and who had lots of homespun wisdom 203 00:10:57,783 --> 00:11:00,413 and sharp social critiques to share. 204 00:11:00,577 --> 00:11:03,117 It was an immediate hit. 205 00:11:03,288 --> 00:11:07,378 No one, including James Franklin, had any idea 206 00:11:07,542 --> 00:11:10,382 that the real author was a teenage boy, 207 00:11:10,545 --> 00:11:13,835 James's 16-year-old brother Benjamin, 208 00:11:14,007 --> 00:11:18,097 who had secretly slipped the essay under the door. 209 00:11:18,261 --> 00:11:22,141 More of Silence Dogood's articles began to appear. 210 00:11:22,307 --> 00:11:25,727 She offered irreverent advice on funeral eulogies, 211 00:11:25,894 --> 00:11:28,944 advocated fiercely for women's education, 212 00:11:29,106 --> 00:11:32,816 and in one dispatch poked fun at Harvard 213 00:11:32,984 --> 00:11:34,784 and the wealthy parents who dreamed of 214 00:11:34,945 --> 00:11:39,065 sending their children to the elite institution. 215 00:11:39,241 --> 00:11:41,741 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Most of them consulted their own Purses 216 00:11:41,910 --> 00:11:44,750 instead of their Childrens Capacities. 217 00:11:44,913 --> 00:11:46,753 At Harvard They learn little more than 218 00:11:46,915 --> 00:11:49,165 how to carry themselves handsomely, 219 00:11:49,334 --> 00:11:51,554 and enter a Room genteely... 220 00:11:51,712 --> 00:11:53,132 and from whence they return, 221 00:11:53,296 --> 00:11:55,716 after Abundance of Trouble and Charge, 222 00:11:55,882 --> 00:11:58,432 as great Blockheads as ever, 223 00:11:58,593 --> 00:12:01,563 only more proud and self-conceited. 224 00:12:01,722 --> 00:12:04,102 [HORSE WHINNIES] [DOOR CLOSES] 225 00:12:04,266 --> 00:12:06,636 NARRATOR: In the summer of 1722, 226 00:12:06,810 --> 00:12:10,110 James was jailed for 3 weeks without trial 227 00:12:10,272 --> 00:12:13,152 for questioning the competence of Cotton Mather 228 00:12:13,316 --> 00:12:15,896 and the colony's other leaders. 229 00:12:16,069 --> 00:12:19,109 Quoting from an article he had read in a London newspaper, 230 00:12:19,281 --> 00:12:24,371 Benjamin, as Silence Dogood, came to his brother's defense. 231 00:12:26,037 --> 00:12:27,037 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Without Freedom of Thought, 232 00:12:27,205 --> 00:12:29,785 there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; 233 00:12:29,958 --> 00:12:32,378 and no such Thing as publick Liberty, 234 00:12:32,544 --> 00:12:34,304 without Freedom of Speech. 235 00:12:35,839 --> 00:12:38,009 Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, 236 00:12:38,175 --> 00:12:41,845 must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech. 237 00:12:43,930 --> 00:12:45,560 NARRATOR: When James was released from jail 238 00:12:45,724 --> 00:12:47,894 and resumed putting out his newspaper, 239 00:12:48,059 --> 00:12:51,479 Benjamin confessed publicly that he, in fact, 240 00:12:51,646 --> 00:12:54,816 was writing Silence Dogood's essays. 241 00:12:54,983 --> 00:12:57,533 Many cheered him for his artfulness, 242 00:12:57,694 --> 00:13:00,414 but James was jealous. 243 00:13:00,572 --> 00:13:05,042 They would argue--and it sometimes came to blows. [SLAP, SHOUTING] 244 00:13:05,202 --> 00:13:07,002 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I fancy his harsh and tyrannical 245 00:13:07,162 --> 00:13:09,292 Treatment of me, might be a means of 246 00:13:09,456 --> 00:13:12,786 impressing me with that Aversion to arbitrary Power 247 00:13:12,959 --> 00:13:16,379 that has stuck to me thro' my whole Life. 248 00:13:17,923 --> 00:13:20,183 NARRATOR: Franklin decided to run away, 249 00:13:20,342 --> 00:13:25,102 even if it meant breaking his legal obligation to his brother. 250 00:13:25,263 --> 00:13:28,683 After selling some of his books to pay for his passage, 251 00:13:28,850 --> 00:13:32,060 he slipped out of town on a ship heading south, 252 00:13:32,229 --> 00:13:36,269 convincing the captain to keep quiet under the false pretense 253 00:13:36,441 --> 00:13:40,611 that he had gotten a girl pregnant and needed to leave. 254 00:13:40,779 --> 00:13:43,529 He was 17 years old. 255 00:13:46,201 --> 00:13:52,461 ♪ 256 00:13:52,624 --> 00:13:56,844 11 days later, on October 6, 1723, 257 00:13:57,003 --> 00:13:59,513 Franklin arrived at the Market Street wharf 258 00:13:59,673 --> 00:14:02,133 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, 259 00:14:02,300 --> 00:14:06,260 the City of Brotherly Love founded by William Penn, 260 00:14:06,429 --> 00:14:11,019 a Quaker for whom the colony of Pennsylvania was named. 261 00:14:11,184 --> 00:14:14,194 With 6,000 residents, Philadelphia was now 262 00:14:14,354 --> 00:14:19,154 America's third-largest city after Boston and New York. 263 00:14:19,317 --> 00:14:22,987 It was a thriving outpost of the British Empire-- 264 00:14:23,154 --> 00:14:27,164 its streets filled with both newcomers and Native peoples, 265 00:14:27,325 --> 00:14:33,325 including the Lenape, on whose land the city now stood. 266 00:14:33,498 --> 00:14:36,538 ISAACSON: People are coming from all sorts of backgrounds. 267 00:14:36,710 --> 00:14:38,590 There's Anglicans, there's Jews, 268 00:14:38,753 --> 00:14:40,963 there's slaves, freed slaves. 269 00:14:41,131 --> 00:14:43,761 There's the Germans coming in and the Presbyterians 270 00:14:43,925 --> 00:14:46,385 and the Native Americans who were there. 271 00:14:46,553 --> 00:14:49,893 And, unlike Puritan Boston, where you have to follow 272 00:14:50,056 --> 00:14:53,266 the theocratic maxims of the Mather family, 273 00:14:53,435 --> 00:14:58,515 people in Philadelphia have a certain tolerance. 274 00:14:58,690 --> 00:15:01,530 WOMAN: Colonial Philadelphia had a different vibe, 275 00:15:01,693 --> 00:15:03,323 a different flavor. 276 00:15:03,486 --> 00:15:07,946 Growing commerce, saloons and taverns, 277 00:15:08,116 --> 00:15:11,406 a sort of hospitable place, but also a place in which 278 00:15:11,578 --> 00:15:15,168 people could find themselves and create themselves. 279 00:15:15,332 --> 00:15:18,042 Franklin landing in Philadelphia at this moment 280 00:15:18,209 --> 00:15:21,379 was perfect for him, in terms of timing. 281 00:15:21,546 --> 00:15:25,466 He didn't have to be someone who came from great wealth 282 00:15:25,634 --> 00:15:28,684 in order to find opportunity. 283 00:15:28,845 --> 00:15:31,055 MAN: He's just a kid. 284 00:15:31,222 --> 00:15:33,312 He's run away from his apprenticeship, 285 00:15:33,475 --> 00:15:35,475 so, he's scared, probably, that they're going to 286 00:15:35,644 --> 00:15:36,904 track him down. 287 00:15:37,062 --> 00:15:40,482 He's not sure what comes next. 288 00:15:40,649 --> 00:15:43,279 NARRATOR: "I was dirty from my journey," Franklin wrote, 289 00:15:43,443 --> 00:15:46,823 "and I knew no soul nor where to look for lodging. 290 00:15:46,988 --> 00:15:51,078 I was fatigued and very hungry." 291 00:15:51,242 --> 00:15:54,622 It was a Sunday, and he saw a crowd of well-dressed people 292 00:15:54,788 --> 00:15:57,168 heading into a church. 293 00:15:57,332 --> 00:16:01,252 They were Quakers about to attend their weekly service, 294 00:16:01,419 --> 00:16:05,129 marked by sitting in silence together. 295 00:16:07,425 --> 00:16:08,885 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I sat down among them, 296 00:16:09,052 --> 00:16:11,222 and after looking round awhile 297 00:16:11,388 --> 00:16:12,888 and hearing nothing said, 298 00:16:13,056 --> 00:16:16,096 I fell fast asleep, and continued so 299 00:16:16,267 --> 00:16:20,647 till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me. 300 00:16:20,814 --> 00:16:23,404 [DOG BARKING] 301 00:16:23,566 --> 00:16:25,856 NARRATOR: Walking up Market Street, he passed a house 302 00:16:26,027 --> 00:16:28,857 and exchanged glances with a 15-year-old girl 303 00:16:29,030 --> 00:16:31,990 standing in the doorway, who, he was sure, 304 00:16:32,158 --> 00:16:34,868 "thought I made, as I certainly did, 305 00:16:35,036 --> 00:16:38,116 a most awkward, ridiculous appearance." 306 00:16:39,457 --> 00:16:42,287 He went to work at one of the city's print shops 307 00:16:42,460 --> 00:16:45,090 and eventually began renting a room at the house 308 00:16:45,255 --> 00:16:48,085 he had passed that first morning. 309 00:16:49,342 --> 00:16:51,392 The girl he had seen was his landlord's daughter-- 310 00:16:51,553 --> 00:16:53,603 Deborah Read. 311 00:16:53,763 --> 00:16:55,313 They struck up a romance, 312 00:16:55,473 --> 00:17:00,023 and by the fall of 1724 were talking of marriage. 313 00:17:02,355 --> 00:17:04,725 Meanwhile, patrons of the print shop had noticed 314 00:17:04,899 --> 00:17:07,359 Franklin's skill and diligence. 315 00:17:07,527 --> 00:17:10,737 One of them, Pennsylvania's governor William Keith, 316 00:17:10,905 --> 00:17:15,615 offered what seemed to be the opportunity of a lifetime. 317 00:17:15,785 --> 00:17:17,995 He would send Franklin to London 318 00:17:18,163 --> 00:17:20,673 with letters of introduction and credit 319 00:17:20,832 --> 00:17:22,382 to purchase the equipment needed 320 00:17:22,542 --> 00:17:26,092 to start his own print shop in Philadelphia. 321 00:17:28,256 --> 00:17:30,716 Marriage to Deborah would have to wait. 322 00:17:30,884 --> 00:17:34,144 Benjamin was bound for England. 323 00:17:34,304 --> 00:17:41,394 ♪ 324 00:17:41,561 --> 00:17:43,231 MAN AS DANIEL DEFOE: The great center of England 325 00:17:43,396 --> 00:17:45,896 is the city of London and parts adjacent. 326 00:17:46,066 --> 00:17:48,146 All that vast mass of buildings, 327 00:17:48,318 --> 00:17:51,318 and how much farther it may spread, who knows? 328 00:17:51,488 --> 00:17:54,368 New squares and new streets rising up every day 329 00:17:54,532 --> 00:17:57,332 to such a prodigy of buildings that nothing in the world 330 00:17:57,494 --> 00:18:02,624 does, or ever did, equal it, except old Rome. 331 00:18:02,791 --> 00:18:04,041 Daniel Defoe. 332 00:18:06,377 --> 00:18:08,297 NARRATOR: With more than 600,000 residents, 333 00:18:08,463 --> 00:18:11,263 100 times the size of Philadelphia, 334 00:18:11,424 --> 00:18:14,344 London was the teeming hub of an empire 335 00:18:14,511 --> 00:18:19,471 that considered its far-flung colonists with mild disdain. 336 00:18:19,641 --> 00:18:23,771 They viewed Americans as backwards suppliers of raw materials 337 00:18:23,937 --> 00:18:26,817 and as purchasers of manufactured goods 338 00:18:26,981 --> 00:18:30,691 only England could provide. 339 00:18:30,860 --> 00:18:31,900 MAN: Coming out of the Provinces, 340 00:18:32,070 --> 00:18:34,280 he found a greater world. 341 00:18:34,447 --> 00:18:39,287 In England, he was young and impressionable 342 00:18:39,452 --> 00:18:46,172 and able to make his way into that huge metropolis of London 343 00:18:46,334 --> 00:18:49,464 from nothing but his ability. 344 00:18:49,629 --> 00:18:52,669 NARRATOR: Upon his arrival, Franklin learned too late that 345 00:18:52,841 --> 00:18:56,641 Governor Keith had a reputation for unreliability. 346 00:18:56,803 --> 00:19:00,393 There were no letters of credit or introduction. 347 00:19:00,557 --> 00:19:03,807 Once more, he would have to fend for himself. 348 00:19:05,395 --> 00:19:07,515 For a year and a half, he made the most of it. 349 00:19:07,689 --> 00:19:10,109 London had more print shops than all of 350 00:19:10,275 --> 00:19:12,645 the American colonies combined, 351 00:19:12,819 --> 00:19:14,779 and he quickly found work, 352 00:19:14,946 --> 00:19:20,196 impressing his employers with his strength and his sobriety. 353 00:19:20,368 --> 00:19:23,408 Unlike all the other workers, he did not drink 354 00:19:23,580 --> 00:19:28,590 a pint of beer 6 different times during the workday. 355 00:19:28,751 --> 00:19:31,881 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I drank only Water; the other Workmen 356 00:19:32,046 --> 00:19:33,166 wonder'd to see from this 357 00:19:33,339 --> 00:19:36,549 that the Water-American, as they call'd me, 358 00:19:36,718 --> 00:19:38,758 was stronger than themselves. 359 00:19:40,805 --> 00:19:43,805 NARRATOR: He spent his free time poring through books, 360 00:19:43,975 --> 00:19:48,265 especially Enlightenment treatises by Isaac Newton, 361 00:19:48,438 --> 00:19:52,228 René Descartes, John Locke, and other philosophers 362 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:55,400 who argued that truths were to be found 363 00:19:55,570 --> 00:19:59,370 through the study of how things work in the natural world. 364 00:19:59,532 --> 00:20:03,082 ♪ 365 00:20:03,244 --> 00:20:04,334 JENKINSON: The Enlightenment. 366 00:20:04,495 --> 00:20:07,365 It's a commitment to reason and science. 367 00:20:07,540 --> 00:20:09,540 It's a belief that every problem can be solved 368 00:20:09,709 --> 00:20:13,089 and that every institution can be reformed, 369 00:20:13,254 --> 00:20:14,804 that life on Earth is perfectible, 370 00:20:14,964 --> 00:20:17,684 at least up to a point, 371 00:20:17,842 --> 00:20:20,092 and maybe altogether. 372 00:20:20,261 --> 00:20:22,101 NARRATOR: In London, Franklin also seemed 373 00:20:22,263 --> 00:20:23,933 to have forgotten Deborah 374 00:20:24,098 --> 00:20:26,268 and indulged in what he called 375 00:20:26,434 --> 00:20:29,154 "foolish intrigues with low women." 376 00:20:29,312 --> 00:20:32,322 He wrote her only one letter. 377 00:20:32,482 --> 00:20:37,152 In his absence, Deborah married someone else. 378 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,110 [DOG BARKING] But when a Quaker merchant 379 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:41,530 offered Franklin a job as a clerk 380 00:20:41,699 --> 00:20:43,949 selling merchandise in a general store 381 00:20:44,118 --> 00:20:45,328 back in Philadelphia 382 00:20:45,495 --> 00:20:48,825 and then dangled a potential partnership, 383 00:20:48,998 --> 00:20:50,998 he headed home. 384 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,420 During the 12-week voyage, Franklin wrote out a plan 385 00:20:57,590 --> 00:21:01,760 for future conduct, with 4 basic rules: 386 00:21:01,928 --> 00:21:03,888 be "extremely frugal," 387 00:21:04,055 --> 00:21:07,675 "endeavor to speak the truth in every instance," 388 00:21:07,850 --> 00:21:12,400 "apply myself industriously to whatever business I take," 389 00:21:12,563 --> 00:21:15,363 and "speak ill of no man whatever." 390 00:21:17,986 --> 00:21:21,406 In Philadelphia, he threw himself into his new job, 391 00:21:21,572 --> 00:21:25,582 becoming, he said, an "expert at selling." 392 00:21:25,743 --> 00:21:29,373 But that winter, his employer took ill and died. 393 00:21:30,665 --> 00:21:34,335 Franklin decided to return to his old trade as a printer. 394 00:21:35,503 --> 00:21:38,013 [BELL RINGS] In 1728, he opened 395 00:21:38,172 --> 00:21:40,432 his own shop on Market Street 396 00:21:40,591 --> 00:21:42,891 with a partner whose father underwrote 397 00:21:43,052 --> 00:21:45,932 the initial expenses. 398 00:21:46,097 --> 00:21:49,477 He had devised a foundry for casting type, 399 00:21:49,642 --> 00:21:53,152 saving the cost of sending to England for replacements, 400 00:21:53,313 --> 00:21:55,403 and won a contract to print 401 00:21:55,565 --> 00:21:58,475 the authorized history of the Quakers. 402 00:21:59,694 --> 00:22:01,404 When his new partner took to drinking, 403 00:22:01,571 --> 00:22:04,741 Franklin found other backers to buy him out 404 00:22:04,907 --> 00:22:08,157 and continued as sole proprietor. 405 00:22:08,328 --> 00:22:10,538 In his drive to succeed, he often worked 406 00:22:10,705 --> 00:22:12,325 until 11 at night 407 00:22:12,498 --> 00:22:15,378 and was back at his shop before dawn. 408 00:22:16,961 --> 00:22:19,461 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I took care not only to be in Reality 409 00:22:19,630 --> 00:22:22,050 Industrious and frugal, but to avoid 410 00:22:22,216 --> 00:22:25,426 all Appearances of the Contrary. 411 00:22:25,595 --> 00:22:28,055 NARRATOR: He made sure people noticed, 412 00:22:28,222 --> 00:22:31,772 and his business increased. 413 00:22:31,934 --> 00:22:34,654 CHAPLIN: He was a writer. You know, writers invent. 414 00:22:34,812 --> 00:22:38,732 He might be his own best invention. 415 00:22:38,900 --> 00:22:42,700 Franklin is so relentless in learning how to do things, 416 00:22:42,862 --> 00:22:46,322 learning how to do things correctly in a certain way, 417 00:22:46,491 --> 00:22:48,531 how to write, how to dress, how to 418 00:22:48,701 --> 00:22:50,701 speak to different kinds of people. 419 00:22:50,870 --> 00:22:53,920 It's sort of impossible to know what was there 420 00:22:54,082 --> 00:22:57,092 before he did all that and invented himself. 421 00:22:59,837 --> 00:23:02,587 NARRATOR: With 11 other up-and-coming tradesmen, 422 00:23:02,757 --> 00:23:05,757 Franklin formed a club that met each Friday evening 423 00:23:05,927 --> 00:23:10,467 to socialize and forge business connections. 424 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:13,230 But they also discussed current events 425 00:23:13,393 --> 00:23:16,903 and politely debated a variety of topics-- 426 00:23:17,063 --> 00:23:20,863 What is wisdom? What defines good writing? 427 00:23:21,025 --> 00:23:24,445 Did importing indentured and enslaved servants 428 00:23:24,612 --> 00:23:27,872 help or hurt the colonial economy? 429 00:23:29,367 --> 00:23:32,747 The official name of the group was the Leather Apron Club. 430 00:23:32,912 --> 00:23:36,292 Informally, they called themselves the Junto, 431 00:23:36,457 --> 00:23:39,667 from the Latin for "joined together." 432 00:23:39,836 --> 00:23:43,296 At 21, Franklin was its youngest member, 433 00:23:43,464 --> 00:23:47,594 but unquestionably its driving force. 434 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,680 ISAACSON: Franklin believed that the virtues and values 435 00:23:51,848 --> 00:23:53,718 of a working middle class 436 00:23:53,891 --> 00:23:57,191 were going to be the backbone of American society. 437 00:23:57,353 --> 00:23:59,773 The artisans, the shopkeepers, 438 00:23:59,939 --> 00:24:02,779 the people who put on leather aprons early in the morning 439 00:24:02,942 --> 00:24:05,742 to help serve the public. 440 00:24:05,903 --> 00:24:08,323 NARRATOR: The Junto moved its meeting place 441 00:24:08,489 --> 00:24:11,159 from a local tavern to a rented house, 442 00:24:11,325 --> 00:24:13,155 and at Franklin's suggestion, 443 00:24:13,327 --> 00:24:15,247 each member brought some books 444 00:24:15,413 --> 00:24:17,503 that the other members could read. 445 00:24:20,585 --> 00:24:21,745 Eventually, they broadened the idea 446 00:24:21,919 --> 00:24:25,339 into the Library Company of Philadelphia, 447 00:24:25,506 --> 00:24:27,756 America's first subscription library 448 00:24:27,925 --> 00:24:29,335 open to the public, 449 00:24:29,510 --> 00:24:32,180 who paid small dues for the chance to borrow 450 00:24:32,346 --> 00:24:35,596 books imported from Europe. 451 00:24:35,766 --> 00:24:38,136 DUNBAR: And, every year, more and more books would be 452 00:24:38,311 --> 00:24:41,481 collected and extend knowledge. 453 00:24:41,647 --> 00:24:44,607 What was so important about the Library Company 454 00:24:44,775 --> 00:24:50,525 was that it wasn't just for wealthy, elite men. 455 00:24:50,698 --> 00:24:52,698 MAN AS FRANKLIN: This Library afforded me 456 00:24:52,867 --> 00:24:56,617 the Means of Improvement by constant Study, 457 00:24:56,787 --> 00:24:59,417 for which I set apart an Hour or two each Day; 458 00:24:59,582 --> 00:25:01,752 and thus repair'd in some Degree 459 00:25:01,918 --> 00:25:04,338 the Loss of the Learned Education 460 00:25:04,504 --> 00:25:07,054 my Father once intended for me. 461 00:25:09,091 --> 00:25:10,721 JENKINSON: He always looked around wherever he was 462 00:25:10,885 --> 00:25:12,505 and said, "What needs to be done? 463 00:25:12,678 --> 00:25:13,928 "What's missing? What are the things 464 00:25:14,096 --> 00:25:16,096 that a community ought to have?" 465 00:25:16,265 --> 00:25:19,685 He had read enough to know that there was more elsewhere 466 00:25:19,852 --> 00:25:22,402 and he wanted to make those good things happen 467 00:25:22,563 --> 00:25:24,613 to the community of Philadelphia. 468 00:25:26,067 --> 00:25:28,317 ISAACSON: Self-reliance, which Franklin loved, 469 00:25:28,486 --> 00:25:30,856 and community engagement may seem like 470 00:25:31,030 --> 00:25:32,320 they oppose each other. 471 00:25:32,490 --> 00:25:35,370 But as Franklin repeatedly said, 472 00:25:35,535 --> 00:25:37,535 the good that we can do together 473 00:25:37,703 --> 00:25:40,583 surpasses the good we can do alone. 474 00:25:43,751 --> 00:25:46,551 NARRATOR: Over the coming years, Franklin and his Junto 475 00:25:46,712 --> 00:25:48,922 would turn to other civic projects 476 00:25:49,090 --> 00:25:51,720 to improve life in Philadelphia. 477 00:25:53,427 --> 00:25:55,257 Under their guidance, the city formed 478 00:25:55,429 --> 00:25:57,679 volunteer fire companies. 479 00:25:57,848 --> 00:26:00,138 They advocated for a police force 480 00:26:00,309 --> 00:26:02,979 paid by a property tax. 481 00:26:03,145 --> 00:26:04,895 And at one Junto meeting, 482 00:26:05,064 --> 00:26:09,114 Franklin raised the idea of starting a college. 483 00:26:11,028 --> 00:26:13,028 When the Public Academy of Philadelphia 484 00:26:13,197 --> 00:26:15,947 finally opened in 1751, 485 00:26:16,117 --> 00:26:19,907 Franklin would be elected president of the board. 486 00:26:20,079 --> 00:26:24,039 It was the first non-sectarian college in America 487 00:26:24,208 --> 00:26:28,498 and would later become the University of Pennsylvania. 488 00:26:30,590 --> 00:26:32,170 Expanding on the Junto model, 489 00:26:32,341 --> 00:26:34,391 he proposed and organized 490 00:26:34,552 --> 00:26:37,682 the American Philosophical Society, 491 00:26:37,847 --> 00:26:41,137 whose members would be scientists and intellectuals 492 00:26:41,309 --> 00:26:43,689 from throughout the colonies, 493 00:26:43,853 --> 00:26:47,483 who could share ideas and scholarly papers by mail 494 00:26:47,648 --> 00:26:50,938 if they could not come to meetings in person. 495 00:26:51,110 --> 00:26:55,410 It would become the colonies' first learned society. 496 00:26:57,074 --> 00:26:59,834 And to build a new hospital, he devised a plan 497 00:26:59,994 --> 00:27:04,714 that matched private donations with public funds, 498 00:27:04,874 --> 00:27:08,464 giving people, he said, "an additional motive to give, 499 00:27:08,628 --> 00:27:12,298 since every man's donation would be doubled." 500 00:27:13,841 --> 00:27:15,261 He always believed that if you just get a few 501 00:27:15,426 --> 00:27:17,756 good and interested men, always men, 502 00:27:17,928 --> 00:27:21,678 on any civic problem, you can solve it. 503 00:27:21,849 --> 00:27:26,689 DUNBAR: Ben Franklin is, I think, emblematic of what 504 00:27:26,854 --> 00:27:30,444 America wanted to be, should be, could be. 505 00:27:30,608 --> 00:27:34,068 The things that he spoke of, the things that he wrote about, 506 00:27:34,236 --> 00:27:39,446 often missing are other people. 507 00:27:39,617 --> 00:27:42,577 Women, people of color, in particular, 508 00:27:42,745 --> 00:27:45,705 enslaved men and women, never had 509 00:27:45,873 --> 00:27:49,093 the opportunities that a Ben Franklin had. 510 00:27:49,251 --> 00:27:52,421 ♪ 511 00:27:54,173 --> 00:28:00,723 ♪ 512 00:28:00,888 --> 00:28:03,138 NARRATOR: Franklin's print shop was thriving. 513 00:28:03,307 --> 00:28:06,137 Pennsylvania's colonial legislature awarded him 514 00:28:06,310 --> 00:28:09,770 the contract to print its paper currency. 515 00:28:09,939 --> 00:28:11,399 When he learned that South Carolina 516 00:28:11,565 --> 00:28:13,315 was looking for a printer, 517 00:28:13,484 --> 00:28:15,534 he dispatched one of his employees 518 00:28:15,695 --> 00:28:18,155 to open a shop in Charleston. 519 00:28:20,116 --> 00:28:24,156 And on October 2, 1729, he began publishing 520 00:28:24,328 --> 00:28:28,828 his own newspaper, "The Pennsylvania Gazette." 521 00:28:28,999 --> 00:28:31,999 He filled its pages with reports from other newspapers 522 00:28:32,169 --> 00:28:34,129 in America and England, 523 00:28:34,296 --> 00:28:36,256 along with crime stories, 524 00:28:36,424 --> 00:28:39,224 notices of fires and deaths, 525 00:28:39,385 --> 00:28:41,215 a moral advice column, 526 00:28:41,387 --> 00:28:46,017 funny tales he concocted that flirted with sexual innuendo, 527 00:28:46,183 --> 00:28:50,693 and letters from readers, including some he wrote himself, 528 00:28:50,855 --> 00:28:52,725 under tongue-in-cheek pseudonyms like 529 00:28:52,898 --> 00:28:57,108 Anthony Afterwit and Alice Addertongue. 530 00:28:57,278 --> 00:28:59,988 "If you would make your paper a vehicle of scandal," 531 00:29:00,156 --> 00:29:02,696 Addertongue advised in one letter, 532 00:29:02,867 --> 00:29:05,867 "you would double the number of your subscribers." 533 00:29:07,621 --> 00:29:09,421 The "Gazette" caught on. 534 00:29:10,791 --> 00:29:12,421 DUNBAR: Ben Franklin understood the power 535 00:29:12,585 --> 00:29:15,165 of the printing press. 536 00:29:15,337 --> 00:29:19,047 He understood that those who controlled words, 537 00:29:19,216 --> 00:29:23,426 those who are able to disseminate information, um, 538 00:29:23,596 --> 00:29:25,056 had a certain amount of power. 539 00:29:25,222 --> 00:29:29,732 He could be the arbiter of what was seen as important. 540 00:29:31,687 --> 00:29:33,557 BRANDS: The idea, first, was to engage people, 541 00:29:33,731 --> 00:29:35,571 to entertain people. 542 00:29:35,733 --> 00:29:37,033 Franklin understood that if you could get people 543 00:29:37,193 --> 00:29:38,783 to laugh with you, you're halfway to 544 00:29:38,944 --> 00:29:41,614 getting them to agree with you. 545 00:29:41,781 --> 00:29:43,661 NARRATOR: He also welcomed essays 546 00:29:43,824 --> 00:29:47,244 espousing opinions of all kinds. 547 00:29:47,411 --> 00:29:48,871 MAN AS FRANKLIN: If all printers were determined 548 00:29:49,038 --> 00:29:50,708 not to print anything till they were 549 00:29:50,873 --> 00:29:52,833 sure it would offend nobody, 550 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,130 there would be very little printed. 551 00:29:56,378 --> 00:29:58,338 ISAACSON: He said in the end you have to bear 552 00:29:58,506 --> 00:30:03,216 some responsibility for the type of ideas that you put forward. 553 00:30:03,385 --> 00:30:05,675 And if they're really odious, if they're really harmful, 554 00:30:05,846 --> 00:30:08,886 you have to curate them out. 555 00:30:09,058 --> 00:30:11,018 WOMAN: If you made a mistake, you could, 556 00:30:11,185 --> 00:30:16,145 as they always did in those days, add an errata page. 557 00:30:16,315 --> 00:30:20,685 And you could fix anything with that errata page. 558 00:30:22,238 --> 00:30:24,368 NARRATOR: Local merchants advertised their goods 559 00:30:24,532 --> 00:30:25,872 in the "Gazette;" 560 00:30:26,033 --> 00:30:29,123 tradesmen advertised their services. 561 00:30:29,286 --> 00:30:32,866 Franklin also published notices offering rewards 562 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:35,580 for runaway indentured servants, 563 00:30:35,751 --> 00:30:37,341 like he had once been, 564 00:30:37,503 --> 00:30:39,883 and slaves for sale. 565 00:30:42,007 --> 00:30:44,677 MAN: To be sold in Lots or singly, 566 00:30:44,844 --> 00:30:47,724 a choice parcel of Negroes lately Imported, 567 00:30:47,888 --> 00:30:50,428 consisting chiefly of young Men and Girls, 568 00:30:50,599 --> 00:30:52,769 bred to Plantation Business; 569 00:30:52,935 --> 00:30:55,765 also Jamaica Rum, Sugar of sundry Sorts, 570 00:30:55,938 --> 00:30:58,858 Molasses, Cotton, and Pimento. 571 00:31:01,443 --> 00:31:04,993 Run away from the subscriber, a Negroe lad called Ned, 572 00:31:05,155 --> 00:31:08,905 about 18 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches high, 573 00:31:09,076 --> 00:31:11,286 speaks pretty good English, but thick, 574 00:31:11,453 --> 00:31:14,873 has very thick lips, and is much pitted with the small-pox; 575 00:31:17,167 --> 00:31:20,707 TO BE SOLD, A LIKELY young breeding Negroe Woman, 576 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,670 speaks good English, understands her Needle 577 00:31:23,841 --> 00:31:26,261 and any sort of Household Work, 578 00:31:26,427 --> 00:31:27,927 and has had the Small-Pox. 579 00:31:29,638 --> 00:31:31,388 Enquire of the Printer. 580 00:31:35,519 --> 00:31:38,439 ♪ 581 00:31:38,606 --> 00:31:39,726 NARRATOR: When Benjamin Franklin 582 00:31:39,899 --> 00:31:41,819 had returned from England, 583 00:31:41,984 --> 00:31:44,614 he had fallen back into some of the habits 584 00:31:44,778 --> 00:31:47,318 he had acquired in London. 585 00:31:47,489 --> 00:31:50,159 MAN AS FRANKLIN: That hard-to- be-govern'd Passion of Youth 586 00:31:50,326 --> 00:31:53,326 hurried me frequently into Intrigues with low Women 587 00:31:53,495 --> 00:31:54,995 that fell in my Way, 588 00:31:55,164 --> 00:31:57,504 which were attended with some Expence. 589 00:31:57,666 --> 00:32:01,586 Besides a continual Risque to my Health by a Distemper 590 00:32:01,754 --> 00:32:03,344 which of all Things I dreaded, 591 00:32:03,505 --> 00:32:06,675 tho' by great good Luck I escaped it. 592 00:32:08,427 --> 00:32:11,217 NARRATOR: Now, as he became a successful businessman, 593 00:32:11,388 --> 00:32:15,478 he decided he needed to settle down and get married. 594 00:32:16,977 --> 00:32:19,977 Meanwhile, his former fiancée Deborah Read 595 00:32:20,147 --> 00:32:22,777 had seen her marriage fall apart. 596 00:32:22,942 --> 00:32:27,362 Her husband had abandoned her and fled to the West Indies. 597 00:32:27,529 --> 00:32:31,239 Reports came back that he had died there in a brawl, 598 00:32:31,408 --> 00:32:33,198 but they were unconfirmed. 599 00:32:34,787 --> 00:32:38,367 In Quaker Pennsylvania, Deborah was in a legal limbo. 600 00:32:38,540 --> 00:32:42,210 If she remarried and it turned out he wasn't dead, 601 00:32:42,378 --> 00:32:46,258 she would be guilty of bigamy, punishable at the time 602 00:32:46,423 --> 00:32:50,473 by 39 lashes and life imprisonment. 603 00:32:52,221 --> 00:32:54,101 She now lived with her widowed mother, 604 00:32:54,264 --> 00:32:57,394 who sold homemade remedies to support them both 605 00:32:57,559 --> 00:33:00,309 in their house on Market Street. 606 00:33:00,479 --> 00:33:02,819 Franklin felt some responsibility 607 00:33:02,982 --> 00:33:05,732 for Deborah's unhappiness, and he said, 608 00:33:05,901 --> 00:33:09,821 "our mutual affection was revived." 609 00:33:09,989 --> 00:33:14,739 On September 1, 1730, forgoing a legal wedding, 610 00:33:14,910 --> 00:33:17,000 they simply moved in together 611 00:33:17,162 --> 00:33:19,922 and entered into a common-law marriage, 612 00:33:20,082 --> 00:33:23,342 a practice not all that uncommon. 613 00:33:24,753 --> 00:33:26,923 MAN AS FRANKLIN: She prov'd a good and faithful Helpmate. 614 00:33:27,089 --> 00:33:29,509 Assisted me much by attending the Shop. 615 00:33:29,675 --> 00:33:33,215 We throve together, and have ever mutually endeavour'd 616 00:33:33,387 --> 00:33:35,717 to make each other happy. 617 00:33:35,889 --> 00:33:38,309 COHN: I think he loved her. 618 00:33:38,475 --> 00:33:41,435 I think they rubbed on together beautifully, 619 00:33:41,603 --> 00:33:44,063 as he would have said. 620 00:33:44,231 --> 00:33:45,731 I think during the time that Franklin was 621 00:33:45,899 --> 00:33:47,859 an up-and-coming tradesman, 622 00:33:48,027 --> 00:33:51,357 it was a perfect union. 623 00:33:51,530 --> 00:33:55,330 SKEMP: She was an excellent choice for a wife. 624 00:33:55,492 --> 00:33:59,502 She was well connected; she belonged to Christ Church, 625 00:33:59,663 --> 00:34:02,123 which was the church in town. 626 00:34:02,291 --> 00:34:05,091 It was less of a romantic relationship than it was 627 00:34:05,252 --> 00:34:09,012 a good, strong, business-like partnership. 628 00:34:10,382 --> 00:34:12,342 NARRATOR: But there was a complication. 629 00:34:12,509 --> 00:34:17,009 Franklin had recently fathered a son with another woman. 630 00:34:17,181 --> 00:34:19,431 He never revealed the mother's identity, 631 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:23,190 but Franklin wanted to take custody of the child. 632 00:34:23,353 --> 00:34:25,863 Deborah agreed the boy could live with them. 633 00:34:26,023 --> 00:34:29,033 He was named William. 634 00:34:29,193 --> 00:34:31,113 She takes in his son, who is not her son, 635 00:34:31,278 --> 00:34:33,488 and raises him, not always happily. 636 00:34:33,655 --> 00:34:34,945 [DOOR OPENS] [BELL RINGS] 637 00:34:35,115 --> 00:34:36,695 NARRATOR: Benjamin and Deborah 638 00:34:36,867 --> 00:34:38,617 expanded the print shop to include 639 00:34:38,786 --> 00:34:41,076 sales of her mother's ointments, 640 00:34:41,246 --> 00:34:44,956 fine soap from Franklin's family back in Boston, 641 00:34:45,125 --> 00:34:49,335 coffee, tea, chocolate, and other items. 642 00:34:49,505 --> 00:34:52,045 Deborah purchased rags, which mills throughout 643 00:34:52,216 --> 00:34:54,546 the colonies turned into paper, 644 00:34:54,718 --> 00:34:57,218 creating another profit center. 645 00:34:57,387 --> 00:35:00,057 She also managed the household, 646 00:35:00,224 --> 00:35:03,734 and at night bound books by candlelight. 647 00:35:05,771 --> 00:35:09,151 NARRATOR: Two years into their union, in 1732, 648 00:35:09,316 --> 00:35:12,276 they had a child of their own, Francis. 649 00:35:12,444 --> 00:35:16,574 His proud and doting father called him Franky. 650 00:35:17,908 --> 00:35:19,988 But just after his fourth birthday, 651 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:24,960 Franky came down with smallpox and died. 652 00:35:25,124 --> 00:35:27,634 The huge tragedy of their lives 653 00:35:27,793 --> 00:35:30,383 was the death of Franky. 654 00:35:30,546 --> 00:35:33,796 Franklin was one of the few people in the Colonies 655 00:35:33,966 --> 00:35:37,546 who was 100% behind inoculation. 656 00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:41,009 But it was thought that because Franky 657 00:35:41,181 --> 00:35:43,231 had a very bad cold at the time, 658 00:35:43,392 --> 00:35:47,022 they should hold off until he recovered enough 659 00:35:47,187 --> 00:35:49,857 to be able to withstand the assault on his system 660 00:35:50,023 --> 00:35:52,653 that inoculation would provide. 661 00:35:52,818 --> 00:35:55,108 He never was inoculated. 662 00:35:55,279 --> 00:35:57,779 Franklin never forgave himself. 663 00:36:01,326 --> 00:36:08,456 ♪ 664 00:36:08,625 --> 00:36:10,035 NARRATOR: Franklin's exposure to the writings of 665 00:36:10,210 --> 00:36:12,420 Europe's Enlightenment thinkers 666 00:36:12,588 --> 00:36:15,878 had led him to reject most of the Puritan teachings 667 00:36:16,049 --> 00:36:18,509 of his family's church in Boston. 668 00:36:18,677 --> 00:36:21,887 He no longer worshipped a God intimately connected 669 00:36:22,055 --> 00:36:23,675 with a person's daily life 670 00:36:23,849 --> 00:36:28,149 who answered private prayers or sent down punishments. 671 00:36:30,314 --> 00:36:32,774 But he still believed in a Supreme Being 672 00:36:32,941 --> 00:36:36,111 who had created the world. 673 00:36:36,278 --> 00:36:37,778 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I believe He is pleased 674 00:36:37,946 --> 00:36:39,696 and delights in the happiness 675 00:36:39,865 --> 00:36:41,615 of those He has created; 676 00:36:41,783 --> 00:36:46,163 and since without virtue man can have no happiness in this world, 677 00:36:46,330 --> 00:36:51,130 I firmly believe He delights to see me virtuous. 678 00:36:51,293 --> 00:36:53,673 Avirtuous heretick shall be saved 679 00:36:53,837 --> 00:36:56,217 before a wicked Christian. 680 00:36:57,674 --> 00:36:59,724 NARRATOR: No one feared for Benjamin's soul 681 00:36:59,885 --> 00:37:03,595 more than his pious parents back in Boston, 682 00:37:03,764 --> 00:37:06,984 whose Calvinist Puritanism espoused that salvation 683 00:37:07,142 --> 00:37:09,852 came solely through God's grace 684 00:37:10,020 --> 00:37:11,690 rather than good works 685 00:37:11,855 --> 00:37:14,605 and anyone who strayed from that doctrine 686 00:37:14,775 --> 00:37:17,355 would be eternally damned. 687 00:37:18,654 --> 00:37:21,074 Benjamin, for whom tolerance was becoming 688 00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:23,830 central to his evolving beliefs, 689 00:37:23,992 --> 00:37:26,662 tried to explain himself. 690 00:37:26,828 --> 00:37:29,748 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Honored Father and Mother, I imagine 691 00:37:29,915 --> 00:37:32,415 a Man must have a good deal of Vanity who believes 692 00:37:32,584 --> 00:37:35,634 that all the Doctrines he holds, are true; 693 00:37:35,796 --> 00:37:38,256 and all he rejects, are false. 694 00:37:40,592 --> 00:37:43,392 I think vital Religion has always suffer'd, 695 00:37:43,553 --> 00:37:47,643 when Orthodoxy is more regarded than Virtue. 696 00:37:47,808 --> 00:37:51,438 And the Scripture assures me, that at the last Day, 697 00:37:51,603 --> 00:37:54,733 we shall not be examin'd by what we thought, 698 00:37:54,898 --> 00:37:56,278 but what we did. 699 00:38:00,862 --> 00:38:03,322 SCHIFF: He's a man of omnivorous curiosity, um, 700 00:38:03,490 --> 00:38:05,910 of endless invention, of endless self-invention. 701 00:38:06,076 --> 00:38:07,786 He's so bent on self-improvement, 702 00:38:07,953 --> 00:38:10,333 on teaching himself how to write properly, 703 00:38:10,497 --> 00:38:13,207 or cleansing himself of his moral sins. 704 00:38:13,375 --> 00:38:15,665 He gives us this idea that human nature 705 00:38:15,836 --> 00:38:17,126 may be flawed in some ways, 706 00:38:17,296 --> 00:38:19,796 but anything can be improved. 707 00:38:21,883 --> 00:38:24,513 NARRATOR: In his constant effort for self-improvement, 708 00:38:24,678 --> 00:38:27,718 Franklin made a list of 12 virtues 709 00:38:27,889 --> 00:38:32,309 that could lead him to what he called "moral perfection": 710 00:38:32,477 --> 00:38:39,027 temperance, silence, order, 711 00:38:39,192 --> 00:38:44,702 resolution, frugality, industry, 712 00:38:44,865 --> 00:38:53,785 sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, 713 00:38:53,957 --> 00:38:57,247 tranquility, and chastity. 714 00:38:58,837 --> 00:39:00,957 Then he made a chart with 7 columns 715 00:39:01,131 --> 00:39:02,971 for each day of the week 716 00:39:03,133 --> 00:39:06,013 and rows labeled with each virtue 717 00:39:06,178 --> 00:39:08,348 and went to work on his progress, 718 00:39:08,513 --> 00:39:12,733 marking any infraction with a black spot. 719 00:39:12,893 --> 00:39:16,773 "I was surprised," he said, "to find myself much fuller 720 00:39:16,938 --> 00:39:19,518 of faults than I had imagined." 721 00:39:21,026 --> 00:39:24,276 ISAACSON: Every week, Franklin would make a chart and check, 722 00:39:24,446 --> 00:39:26,656 did he master the virtue? 723 00:39:26,823 --> 00:39:29,703 At one point, he said, "I've mastered all the 12 724 00:39:29,868 --> 00:39:31,238 "virtues I had. 725 00:39:31,411 --> 00:39:33,791 "And I showed it around with great pride. 726 00:39:33,955 --> 00:39:36,955 "And one of my friends said, 'Franklin, you're missing 727 00:39:37,125 --> 00:39:38,205 a virtue you might want to try.'" 728 00:39:38,377 --> 00:39:40,207 And Franklin says, "What's that?" 729 00:39:40,379 --> 00:39:41,839 And the friend says, "Humility. 730 00:39:42,005 --> 00:39:45,625 You might want to add that one to your list." 731 00:39:45,801 --> 00:39:48,431 MAN AS FRANKLIN: In reality, there is perhaps no one of our 732 00:39:48,595 --> 00:39:52,845 natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. 733 00:39:53,016 --> 00:39:55,766 Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, 734 00:39:55,936 --> 00:39:59,816 mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, 735 00:39:59,981 --> 00:40:03,991 and will every now and then peep out and show itself. 736 00:40:04,152 --> 00:40:07,532 Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, 737 00:40:07,697 --> 00:40:12,037 I should probably be proud of my Humility. 738 00:40:14,121 --> 00:40:15,871 [BABY CRYING] 739 00:40:16,039 --> 00:40:19,289 NARRATOR: 7 years after the death of their son Franky, 740 00:40:19,459 --> 00:40:24,169 Deborah gave birth to another child, a daughter named Sarah. 741 00:40:24,339 --> 00:40:26,549 They called her Sally. 742 00:40:27,884 --> 00:40:30,604 Franklin's son William was now a teenager, 743 00:40:30,762 --> 00:40:34,562 as restless as his father had been at that age. 744 00:40:34,724 --> 00:40:37,604 Deborah treated him with occasional coldness, 745 00:40:37,769 --> 00:40:40,729 but Franklin was indulgent as a father, 746 00:40:40,897 --> 00:40:44,027 making sure the boy got the formal education 747 00:40:44,192 --> 00:40:47,112 Franklin himself had been denied. 748 00:40:48,655 --> 00:40:51,445 At age 16, William enlisted to fight against 749 00:40:51,616 --> 00:40:54,156 the French and their Indian allies 750 00:40:54,327 --> 00:40:57,287 in what was called King George's War, 751 00:40:57,456 --> 00:40:59,786 and quickly rose to the rank of captain, 752 00:40:59,958 --> 00:41:03,628 tracking down deserters in Pennsylvania. 753 00:41:03,795 --> 00:41:06,375 [GUNSHOT] When he returned to Philadelphia, 754 00:41:06,548 --> 00:41:08,968 his father began to envision William 755 00:41:09,134 --> 00:41:11,934 rising in the ranks of the British Empire 756 00:41:12,095 --> 00:41:16,515 and made plans for him to study the law in England. 757 00:41:20,353 --> 00:41:24,193 DUNBAR: Franklin had started to acquire some wealth. 758 00:41:25,484 --> 00:41:28,204 Like many other Colonial Pennsylvanians, 759 00:41:28,361 --> 00:41:31,071 he held a number of enslaved people, 760 00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:33,579 up to 5 or 6, in his home, 761 00:41:33,742 --> 00:41:37,412 including a married couple, Peter and Jemima. 762 00:41:37,579 --> 00:41:40,539 He was committed to slave labor. 763 00:41:40,707 --> 00:41:45,247 He used it alongside of his business ventures 764 00:41:45,420 --> 00:41:47,840 in order to gain more wealth. 765 00:41:48,006 --> 00:41:49,546 [HORSE NICKERS] NARRATOR: At the time, 766 00:41:49,716 --> 00:41:52,086 nearly a tenth of Philadelphia's residents 767 00:41:52,260 --> 00:41:53,510 were enslaved, 768 00:41:53,678 --> 00:41:57,388 toiling in homes and businesses. 769 00:41:57,557 --> 00:41:59,937 BROWN: We tend to associate slavery with 770 00:42:00,101 --> 00:42:02,191 plantation labor in the South. 771 00:42:02,354 --> 00:42:04,984 But there were slaves all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, 772 00:42:05,148 --> 00:42:07,278 every one of the 13 Colonies. 773 00:42:07,442 --> 00:42:09,192 And they did everything. They served as domestic servants; 774 00:42:09,361 --> 00:42:12,911 they served as cooks; um, they served as nursemaids; 775 00:42:13,073 --> 00:42:17,543 they served as dock workers; they served as hired hands. 776 00:42:17,702 --> 00:42:21,582 The advantage was that Africans couldn't leave. 777 00:42:21,748 --> 00:42:25,088 Indentured servants filled out their time. 778 00:42:25,252 --> 00:42:27,672 Africans, you had for life. 779 00:42:28,922 --> 00:42:30,922 NARRATOR: Many of Franklin's Quaker friends 780 00:42:31,091 --> 00:42:34,641 considered slavery a sin that threatened to corrode 781 00:42:34,803 --> 00:42:38,223 the moral fiber of the community at large. 782 00:42:38,390 --> 00:42:41,980 Franklin published some of their anti-slavery tracts-- 783 00:42:42,143 --> 00:42:45,403 though he intentionally kept his own name as printer 784 00:42:45,564 --> 00:42:48,114 off the title page. 785 00:42:48,275 --> 00:42:51,145 DUNBAR: Franklin lived in a moment in which slavery was 786 00:42:51,319 --> 00:42:56,029 being challenged, pretty constantly, in Philadelphia. 787 00:42:56,199 --> 00:42:59,739 He was very aware that this was happening, yet he still 788 00:42:59,911 --> 00:43:03,161 made the decision to hold onto his men and woman 789 00:43:03,331 --> 00:43:05,131 who were enslaved. 790 00:43:05,292 --> 00:43:07,172 He made a choice. 791 00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:17,219 NARRATOR: Franklin's publishing empire was 792 00:43:17,387 --> 00:43:20,427 expanding and making more money. 793 00:43:20,599 --> 00:43:22,599 He was named clerk of Pennsylvania's 794 00:43:22,767 --> 00:43:25,897 colonial assembly, which didn't pay well, 795 00:43:26,062 --> 00:43:28,902 but had won the contract to print their proceedings, 796 00:43:29,065 --> 00:43:31,065 which did. 797 00:43:31,234 --> 00:43:34,784 He made even more profits printing the paper currency 798 00:43:34,946 --> 00:43:38,736 for Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. 799 00:43:38,908 --> 00:43:41,698 With former employees, he would establish 800 00:43:41,870 --> 00:43:44,910 printing partnerships in Newport, Rhode Island; 801 00:43:45,081 --> 00:43:48,841 New York City; and Antigua in the West Indies; 802 00:43:49,002 --> 00:43:53,132 as well as the one in Charleston, South Carolina. 803 00:43:53,298 --> 00:43:56,718 He published Bibles, and Samuel Richardson's 804 00:43:56,885 --> 00:44:00,055 "Pamela," the first novel printed in America, 805 00:44:00,221 --> 00:44:03,931 along with treaties with Native peoples that were used 806 00:44:04,100 --> 00:44:09,020 to systematically dispossess them of their lands. 807 00:44:09,189 --> 00:44:14,319 In 1737, he was appointed Philadelphia's postmaster, 808 00:44:14,486 --> 00:44:16,906 giving him access to news from Europe 809 00:44:17,072 --> 00:44:21,952 and the rest of the Colonies before his competitors. 810 00:44:22,118 --> 00:44:23,698 One of the advantages of being a printer is that 811 00:44:23,870 --> 00:44:26,830 he is totally tuned into the news. 812 00:44:26,998 --> 00:44:29,078 He's totally tuned into everything that's 813 00:44:29,250 --> 00:44:30,840 going on in North America. 814 00:44:31,002 --> 00:44:35,342 His vision is broader than most of his neighbors. 815 00:44:35,507 --> 00:44:39,797 He had a kind of public opinion embedded in his brain. 816 00:44:39,969 --> 00:44:43,219 And he knew that opinion in the end was what would 817 00:44:43,390 --> 00:44:45,890 decide where power resided. 818 00:44:46,059 --> 00:44:48,939 ♪ 819 00:44:49,104 --> 00:44:51,614 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Early to Bed, and early to rise, 820 00:44:51,773 --> 00:44:55,403 makes a Man healthy, wealthy and wise. 821 00:44:56,986 --> 00:44:59,156 NARRATOR: By now, thousands of readers 822 00:44:59,322 --> 00:45:01,282 from South Carolina to New York 823 00:45:01,449 --> 00:45:05,159 were buying Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack," 824 00:45:05,328 --> 00:45:08,788 which he had launched in 1733. 825 00:45:08,957 --> 00:45:11,877 Many printers published almanacs. 826 00:45:12,043 --> 00:45:16,013 They outsold everything in the colonies except Bibles 827 00:45:16,172 --> 00:45:18,512 and had the advantage of requiring people 828 00:45:18,675 --> 00:45:22,215 to buy a new one each year. 829 00:45:22,387 --> 00:45:24,347 But Franklin's stood out. 830 00:45:24,514 --> 00:45:26,274 In addition to weather predictions, 831 00:45:26,433 --> 00:45:30,443 astronomical, astrological, and other observations, 832 00:45:30,603 --> 00:45:35,403 he included aphorisms that combined wisdom with humor, 833 00:45:35,567 --> 00:45:38,527 philosophy with word play. 834 00:45:38,695 --> 00:45:40,565 All of it was ostensibly written 835 00:45:40,739 --> 00:45:42,819 by the hapless Richard Saunders, 836 00:45:42,991 --> 00:45:45,121 who claimed he was writing his almanac 837 00:45:45,285 --> 00:45:48,785 simply because his wife threatened to burn his books 838 00:45:48,955 --> 00:45:52,035 if he didn't earn something from them. 839 00:45:52,208 --> 00:45:54,088 JENKINSON: Franklin got this from his reading 840 00:45:54,252 --> 00:45:55,672 of Jonathan Swift. 841 00:45:55,837 --> 00:45:57,087 Swift had produced the "Bickerstaff Papers," 842 00:45:57,255 --> 00:46:00,005 which was a parody of the almanac. 843 00:46:00,175 --> 00:46:04,425 And Franklin decides to incorporate this style 844 00:46:04,596 --> 00:46:06,426 into Richard Saunders. 845 00:46:06,598 --> 00:46:08,348 And it was genius. 846 00:46:08,516 --> 00:46:10,386 People go to almanacs for all sorts of important things-- 847 00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:11,850 when to plant potatoes or peas; 848 00:46:12,020 --> 00:46:14,810 when...what's the best time to harvest-- 849 00:46:14,981 --> 00:46:17,441 but they stayed because these fillers were 850 00:46:17,609 --> 00:46:20,859 funny, witty, and useful. 851 00:46:21,029 --> 00:46:23,619 NARRATOR: "Fish and visitors," Poor Richard wrote, 852 00:46:23,782 --> 00:46:26,282 "stink in 3 days." 853 00:46:26,451 --> 00:46:31,831 "He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas." 854 00:46:31,998 --> 00:46:35,378 "God helps them that help themselves." 855 00:46:35,543 --> 00:46:38,093 "Haste," he said, "makes waste." 856 00:46:38,254 --> 00:46:41,934 And "lost time is never found again." 857 00:46:43,510 --> 00:46:47,310 MAN AS FRANKLIN: God heals, and the doctor takes the fees. 858 00:46:47,472 --> 00:46:49,772 A countryman between two lawyers 859 00:46:49,933 --> 00:46:53,353 is like a fish between two cats. 860 00:46:54,896 --> 00:46:57,606 The greatest monarch on the proudest throne, 861 00:46:57,774 --> 00:47:00,904 is obliged to sit upon his own arse. 862 00:47:01,903 --> 00:47:05,243 SCHIFF: Franklin is endlessly quotable. 863 00:47:05,406 --> 00:47:08,026 You could live your life, I think, in Franklin aphorisms, 864 00:47:08,201 --> 00:47:10,371 most of which, we should say, are stolen from other people 865 00:47:10,537 --> 00:47:12,537 but slightly reworked, so in Franklin's version, 866 00:47:12,705 --> 00:47:14,745 they're in a better form. 867 00:47:14,916 --> 00:47:17,626 "Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead." 868 00:47:19,671 --> 00:47:22,551 ISAACSON: I think one of Franklin's great inventions is 869 00:47:22,715 --> 00:47:26,255 that American style of homespun humor, 870 00:47:26,427 --> 00:47:30,137 somebody who's pricking at the pretensions of the elite, 871 00:47:30,306 --> 00:47:33,096 somebody who has sort of a cracker barrel sensibility. 872 00:47:33,268 --> 00:47:36,648 This new style of humor where people are poking fun 873 00:47:36,813 --> 00:47:38,823 at themselves indirectly. 874 00:47:38,982 --> 00:47:42,692 You see it in Mark Twain and Will Rogers and others. 875 00:47:42,861 --> 00:47:44,821 I think it started with Franklin. 876 00:47:47,949 --> 00:47:55,039 ♪ 877 00:47:55,206 --> 00:47:56,876 NARRATOR: The man who had arrived in Philadelphia 878 00:47:57,041 --> 00:48:00,041 virtually penniless at age 17 879 00:48:00,211 --> 00:48:02,801 was now the city's largest bookseller, 880 00:48:02,964 --> 00:48:06,184 its most successful printer and publisher, 881 00:48:06,342 --> 00:48:10,312 and the biggest paper merchant in all the colonies. 882 00:48:10,471 --> 00:48:13,981 He considered himself prosperous enough to retire 883 00:48:14,142 --> 00:48:18,352 from the day-to-day running of his businesses in 1748, 884 00:48:18,521 --> 00:48:21,151 at age 42. 885 00:48:21,316 --> 00:48:24,486 "I would rather have it said, 'He lived usefully,'" 886 00:48:24,652 --> 00:48:29,322 Franklin wrote his mother, "than 'He died rich.'" 887 00:48:29,490 --> 00:48:31,330 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I am in a fair Way of having 888 00:48:31,492 --> 00:48:35,582 no other Tasks than such as I shall like to give my Self, 889 00:48:35,747 --> 00:48:40,417 and of enjoying what I look upon as a great Happiness, 890 00:48:40,585 --> 00:48:43,915 Leisure to read, make Experiments, 891 00:48:44,088 --> 00:48:47,798 and converse at large with such ingenious and worthy Men 892 00:48:47,967 --> 00:48:49,717 as are pleas'd to honor me 893 00:48:49,886 --> 00:48:52,306 with their friendship and Acquaintance, 894 00:48:52,472 --> 00:48:54,142 on such points as may produce 895 00:48:54,307 --> 00:48:58,387 something for the common benefit of mankind, 896 00:48:58,561 --> 00:49:02,191 uninterrupted by the little cares and fatigues 897 00:49:02,357 --> 00:49:03,687 of business. 898 00:49:05,485 --> 00:49:06,355 BRANDS: There was something in Franklin that always 899 00:49:06,527 --> 00:49:07,947 wanted a little bit more. 900 00:49:08,112 --> 00:49:09,912 He wanted to learn more. He wanted to go 901 00:49:10,073 --> 00:49:11,873 to more interesting places. 902 00:49:12,033 --> 00:49:14,243 He wanted to have a broader influence. 903 00:49:14,410 --> 00:49:16,790 NARRATOR: Despite his lack of a formal education, 904 00:49:16,955 --> 00:49:19,035 Franklin had turned himself 905 00:49:19,207 --> 00:49:22,337 into an influential writer and thinker. 906 00:49:22,502 --> 00:49:24,172 Now, with more time to pursue 907 00:49:24,337 --> 00:49:27,547 whatever intrigued his restless imagination, 908 00:49:27,715 --> 00:49:31,965 he would become better known as a scientist and inventor. 909 00:49:35,056 --> 00:49:36,976 He studied the earth's rotation; 910 00:49:37,141 --> 00:49:39,941 conducted experiments showing that dark cloths 911 00:49:40,103 --> 00:49:43,023 absorb more heat than bright fabrics; 912 00:49:43,189 --> 00:49:45,779 and became fascinated by the human body's 913 00:49:45,942 --> 00:49:48,152 circulatory system. 914 00:49:48,319 --> 00:49:51,909 ISAACSON: He loved anatomy, he loved botany, 915 00:49:52,073 --> 00:49:54,783 he loved the way leaves had veins. 916 00:49:54,951 --> 00:49:58,161 He was most curious to know everything you can know about 917 00:49:58,329 --> 00:50:00,499 everything that was possibly knowable. 918 00:50:00,665 --> 00:50:05,245 Wanting to know everything is a key to his creativity. 919 00:50:05,420 --> 00:50:07,300 NARRATOR: He observed weather patterns 920 00:50:07,463 --> 00:50:10,723 and correctly deduced that the coastal storms 921 00:50:10,883 --> 00:50:12,803 now called Nor'easters 922 00:50:12,969 --> 00:50:15,929 actually moved in from the south. 923 00:50:16,097 --> 00:50:18,347 For an ailing brother, he fashioned 924 00:50:18,516 --> 00:50:21,186 a more comfortable catheter. 925 00:50:21,352 --> 00:50:25,572 And he designed a metal stove to fit into a hearth, 926 00:50:25,732 --> 00:50:29,942 improving on the ones many German immigrants were using. 927 00:50:30,111 --> 00:50:33,281 Franklin's radiated more heat out into the room 928 00:50:33,448 --> 00:50:36,408 and had an opening for those who still wished 929 00:50:36,576 --> 00:50:39,196 to bask in the fire's glow. 930 00:50:39,370 --> 00:50:42,290 An ironworker who was a fellow Junto member 931 00:50:42,457 --> 00:50:46,837 began manufacturing them, and they sold for 5 pounds each 932 00:50:47,003 --> 00:50:49,263 throughout the northeast. 933 00:50:49,422 --> 00:50:51,552 When Franklin was urged to take out 934 00:50:51,716 --> 00:50:57,846 a potentially lucrative patent on his invention, he declined. 935 00:50:58,014 --> 00:50:59,894 MAN AS FRANKLIN: As we enjoy great advantages 936 00:51:00,058 --> 00:51:01,728 from the invention of others, 937 00:51:01,893 --> 00:51:05,403 we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others 938 00:51:05,563 --> 00:51:07,193 by an invention of ours, 939 00:51:07,356 --> 00:51:11,936 and this we should do freely and generously. 940 00:51:14,405 --> 00:51:16,565 NARRATOR: But nothing he did as a scientist 941 00:51:16,741 --> 00:51:18,831 would do more to serve others, 942 00:51:18,993 --> 00:51:20,753 and bring him more fame, 943 00:51:20,912 --> 00:51:25,422 than his work in the fledgling field of electricity. 944 00:51:25,583 --> 00:51:29,423 "I never was before engaged in any study," Franklin wrote, 945 00:51:29,587 --> 00:51:34,257 "that so totally engrossed my attention and my time." 946 00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:38,300 JENKINSON: Franklin had become interested in electricity, 947 00:51:38,471 --> 00:51:41,181 which, at the time, was certainly not understood, 948 00:51:41,349 --> 00:51:43,229 but it was also sort of a parlor trick. 949 00:51:43,392 --> 00:51:45,232 People would come in with a--with a glass rod 950 00:51:45,394 --> 00:51:48,694 and some silk and shock each other and lift 951 00:51:48,856 --> 00:51:50,066 pieces of paper. 952 00:51:50,233 --> 00:51:51,863 NARRATOR: He and his Junto friends 953 00:51:52,026 --> 00:51:54,526 staged electricity parties 954 00:51:54,695 --> 00:51:58,315 in which they used a charge to ring bells 955 00:51:58,491 --> 00:52:03,201 and make a toy he called an electrical spider jump around. 956 00:52:03,371 --> 00:52:07,541 Men and women exchanged electrical kisses. 957 00:52:07,708 --> 00:52:09,538 Franklin also electrified 958 00:52:09,710 --> 00:52:13,420 a gilt-edged portrait of King George II that created 959 00:52:13,589 --> 00:52:16,089 what he called a high-treason shock 960 00:52:16,259 --> 00:52:20,599 if someone touched his crown. [ZAP] 961 00:52:20,763 --> 00:52:23,933 He used a more powerful shock to kill a turkey and reported 962 00:52:24,100 --> 00:52:26,640 that it seemed uncommonly tender 963 00:52:26,811 --> 00:52:30,571 compared to one slaughtered the conventional way. 964 00:52:30,731 --> 00:52:33,991 ISAACSON: He kept saying, "We have to find useful things 965 00:52:34,152 --> 00:52:36,572 to do with this electricity." 966 00:52:36,737 --> 00:52:38,607 He said one of the only useful things in his first year 967 00:52:38,781 --> 00:52:41,621 of experiments was that he would get shocked 968 00:52:41,784 --> 00:52:44,454 and knock him down; and he said, "Electricity was useful 969 00:52:44,620 --> 00:52:47,250 for making a vain person humble." 970 00:52:47,415 --> 00:52:50,245 NARRATOR: As his studies turned more serious, 971 00:52:50,418 --> 00:52:53,208 and he began documenting his observations, [ZAP] 972 00:52:53,379 --> 00:52:55,459 he came up with new terms to describe 973 00:52:55,631 --> 00:52:58,261 electricity's mysterious properties. 974 00:52:58,426 --> 00:52:59,926 [ZAP] 975 00:53:00,094 --> 00:53:02,014 It had two charges, he wrote, 976 00:53:02,180 --> 00:53:04,220 positive and negative, 977 00:53:04,390 --> 00:53:08,900 and it could travel by what he called a conductor. 978 00:53:09,061 --> 00:53:12,361 He grouped a collection of glass containers together, 979 00:53:12,523 --> 00:53:14,653 each possessing an electrical charge, 980 00:53:14,817 --> 00:53:19,067 and named it a battery, using the military term 981 00:53:19,238 --> 00:53:22,368 for an array of cannons. 982 00:53:22,533 --> 00:53:24,163 ISAACSON: Benjamin Franklin comes up with the most 983 00:53:24,327 --> 00:53:27,077 important theory of the era, which is 984 00:53:27,246 --> 00:53:29,246 the Single Fluid Theory of Electricity, 985 00:53:29,415 --> 00:53:32,995 which is that it's not some substance, 986 00:53:33,169 --> 00:53:34,299 but it's a positive and a negative. 987 00:53:34,462 --> 00:53:37,672 And it flows from positive to negative. 988 00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:41,090 NARRATOR: But pure science had less appeal to Franklin 989 00:53:41,260 --> 00:53:43,350 than putting it to practical use. 990 00:53:43,512 --> 00:53:45,432 [THUNDER] 991 00:53:45,598 --> 00:53:48,678 MAN: Lightning was seen as being Divine Retribution. 992 00:53:48,851 --> 00:53:51,231 Of course, the irony was that most of the buildings 993 00:53:51,395 --> 00:53:53,475 that were destroyed by lightning were churches 994 00:53:53,648 --> 00:53:55,728 'cause in a lot of communities in the 18th century, 995 00:53:55,900 --> 00:53:56,820 they were the highest structure. 996 00:53:56,984 --> 00:53:58,744 [THUNDER] 997 00:53:58,903 --> 00:54:01,533 ISAACSON: Franklin is convinced that lightning 998 00:54:01,697 --> 00:54:05,867 bears a similarity to an electrical spark. 999 00:54:06,035 --> 00:54:07,745 He's looking at electric sparks, 1000 00:54:07,912 --> 00:54:10,542 he's looking at lightning, and he puts in his notebook 1001 00:54:10,706 --> 00:54:14,166 all the similarities and at the end of the page, 1002 00:54:14,335 --> 00:54:16,495 he says, "Let the experiment be made." 1003 00:54:16,671 --> 00:54:19,131 [THUNDER] 1004 00:54:19,298 --> 00:54:20,758 NARRATOR: Franklin detailed his theory 1005 00:54:20,925 --> 00:54:23,085 that lightning was electricity 1006 00:54:23,261 --> 00:54:26,681 and that metal objects could draw off a charge. 1007 00:54:26,847 --> 00:54:30,767 He proposed an experiment that involved placing a person 1008 00:54:30,935 --> 00:54:33,095 in what he called a sentry box 1009 00:54:33,271 --> 00:54:35,311 on a high tower or hilltop 1010 00:54:35,481 --> 00:54:38,151 and raising a sharply pointed iron rod 1011 00:54:38,317 --> 00:54:41,237 when storm clouds approached. 1012 00:54:41,404 --> 00:54:44,454 He shared his observations with a London scientist, 1013 00:54:44,615 --> 00:54:47,905 Peter Collinson, who had supplied him with equipment 1014 00:54:48,077 --> 00:54:50,407 for his electrical studies. 1015 00:54:50,579 --> 00:54:53,459 Franklin was planning to conduct the experiment 1016 00:54:53,624 --> 00:54:56,714 on the new steeple of Christ Church off Market Street 1017 00:54:56,877 --> 00:54:59,877 as soon as its construction was completed. 1018 00:55:00,047 --> 00:55:04,677 But the work went slowly and Franklin grew impatient. 1019 00:55:04,844 --> 00:55:06,934 He then came up with an alternative way 1020 00:55:07,096 --> 00:55:08,966 to test his theory. 1021 00:55:09,140 --> 00:55:11,140 He was less confident in this method 1022 00:55:11,309 --> 00:55:13,559 and decided to do it in secret, 1023 00:55:13,728 --> 00:55:17,228 trusting only his son William to take part. 1024 00:55:18,649 --> 00:55:22,819 In June of 1752, with storm clouds threatening, 1025 00:55:22,987 --> 00:55:26,367 he and William went to a field with a silk kite, 1026 00:55:26,532 --> 00:55:30,332 to which Franklin had attached a sharp-pointed wire. 1027 00:55:31,704 --> 00:55:34,584 Dangling at the end of the kite's long twine string 1028 00:55:34,749 --> 00:55:36,919 was a metal key. 1029 00:55:37,084 --> 00:55:40,924 They got the kite aloft and Franklin maneuvered it 1030 00:55:41,088 --> 00:55:43,758 toward the approaching clouds. 1031 00:55:43,924 --> 00:55:45,934 DRAY: What he was showing was that the atmosphere 1032 00:55:46,093 --> 00:55:47,973 became electrified, [THUNDER] 1033 00:55:48,137 --> 00:55:50,927 not that the kite had to be struck by a lightning bolt, 1034 00:55:51,098 --> 00:55:54,388 which is often the way it's depicted in illustrations. 1035 00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:55,980 NARRATOR: Franklin suddenly noticed 1036 00:55:56,145 --> 00:55:57,935 the individual strands of hemp 1037 00:55:58,105 --> 00:55:59,185 along the kite's string 1038 00:55:59,357 --> 00:56:02,227 stiffening and standing on end. 1039 00:56:02,401 --> 00:56:04,531 He moved his free hand toward the key 1040 00:56:04,695 --> 00:56:08,025 and felt a mild shock on his knuckle. 1041 00:56:08,199 --> 00:56:10,029 When the rain began, and water 1042 00:56:10,201 --> 00:56:12,331 started streaming down the twine, 1043 00:56:12,495 --> 00:56:14,955 sparks flew off the key. [ZAPPING] 1044 00:56:15,122 --> 00:56:17,502 Franklin was exultant. 1045 00:56:17,666 --> 00:56:20,666 "Thereby," he wrote of his experiment, 1046 00:56:20,836 --> 00:56:24,216 "the sameness of electrical matter with that of lightning 1047 00:56:24,382 --> 00:56:26,882 has been completely demonstrated." 1048 00:56:29,470 --> 00:56:31,140 [THUNDER] Meanwhile, the theories 1049 00:56:31,305 --> 00:56:33,135 he had shared with Collinson 1050 00:56:33,307 --> 00:56:34,637 had been published, 1051 00:56:34,809 --> 00:56:37,439 and unbeknownst to him, other scientists 1052 00:56:37,603 --> 00:56:40,983 were already testing and verifying them. 1053 00:56:41,148 --> 00:56:44,738 Experiments using his original sentry box proposal 1054 00:56:44,902 --> 00:56:49,822 had been taking place all over England and Europe. 1055 00:56:49,990 --> 00:56:53,290 "Monsieur Franklin's idea," a French physicist wrote, 1056 00:56:53,452 --> 00:56:55,292 "has ceased to be a conjecture; 1057 00:56:55,454 --> 00:56:58,794 here it has become a reality." 1058 00:56:58,958 --> 00:57:01,288 DRAY: The kite experiment, that really was 1059 00:57:01,460 --> 00:57:03,960 the symbol of his breakthrough. 1060 00:57:04,130 --> 00:57:07,760 [THUNDER] It showed that the atmosphere was electrified, 1061 00:57:07,925 --> 00:57:11,385 that thus thunder and lightning were electrical forces. 1062 00:57:11,554 --> 00:57:14,774 And it overthrew centuries of superstition 1063 00:57:14,932 --> 00:57:18,102 and scientific confusion about what this might be. 1064 00:57:19,687 --> 00:57:20,857 MAN: He made a really fundamental contribution 1065 00:57:21,021 --> 00:57:23,151 to basic science. 1066 00:57:23,315 --> 00:57:25,685 And the fact that he did it as an American, 1067 00:57:25,860 --> 00:57:28,700 coming out of the wilds of, uh, of America, 1068 00:57:28,863 --> 00:57:33,533 in the European eyes, made him, uh, instantly world famous. 1069 00:57:33,701 --> 00:57:36,411 CHAPLIN: There's a hilarious little piece 1070 00:57:36,579 --> 00:57:38,499 in the "Gentleman's Magazine" in London 1071 00:57:38,664 --> 00:57:40,584 where this commentator says that "Now we know 1072 00:57:40,749 --> 00:57:42,789 "that Mr. Franklin's theories about 1073 00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:45,670 "emptying the clouds of electricity are actually true; 1074 00:57:45,838 --> 00:57:48,088 "whereas, once upon a time, we didn't even think there was 1075 00:57:48,257 --> 00:57:50,507 such a person as Mr. Franklin." 1076 00:57:50,676 --> 00:57:52,176 'Cause it does seem incredibly improbable 1077 00:57:52,344 --> 00:57:54,934 that the reigning expert on 1078 00:57:55,097 --> 00:57:57,767 an enormous attribute of Nature 1079 00:57:57,933 --> 00:58:00,643 would come from Philadelphia, wherever the hell that was. 1080 00:58:02,062 --> 00:58:03,862 NARRATOR: Benjamin Franklin had unlocked 1081 00:58:04,023 --> 00:58:05,773 the mystery of electricity, 1082 00:58:05,941 --> 00:58:09,951 but he still wanted to put his discovery to work. 1083 00:58:10,112 --> 00:58:12,532 In Germany during the mid-century, 1084 00:58:12,698 --> 00:58:16,488 386 churches had been struck by lightning 1085 00:58:16,660 --> 00:58:19,870 and more than 100 bell ringers killed. [THUNDER] 1086 00:58:20,039 --> 00:58:22,919 In Italy, hundreds more people perished 1087 00:58:23,083 --> 00:58:27,633 when a bolt hit a building that had gunpowder stored in it. 1088 00:58:27,796 --> 00:58:30,506 [THUNDER] Franklin concluded that lightning 1089 00:58:30,674 --> 00:58:32,894 seeks the path of least resistance 1090 00:58:33,052 --> 00:58:34,892 to connect with the ground. 1091 00:58:35,054 --> 00:58:36,394 Providing a better conductor 1092 00:58:36,555 --> 00:58:39,975 might safely divert the charge. 1093 00:58:40,142 --> 00:58:43,402 He then arranged for what he called lightning rods 1094 00:58:43,562 --> 00:58:46,232 to be placed atop Pennsylvania's State House 1095 00:58:46,398 --> 00:58:48,568 and his college building-- 1096 00:58:48,734 --> 00:58:53,454 the first such devices ever erected in the world. 1097 00:58:53,614 --> 00:58:55,744 [THUNDER] ISAACSON: Lightning bolts aren't there 1098 00:58:55,908 --> 00:58:57,408 sent by an angry god. 1099 00:58:57,576 --> 00:58:59,366 It's not something you can just 1100 00:58:59,537 --> 00:59:02,667 try to pray and it goes away. 1101 00:59:02,831 --> 00:59:05,501 You have to find practical, scientific solutions 1102 00:59:05,668 --> 00:59:09,088 that help us understand our cosmos. 1103 00:59:09,255 --> 00:59:11,625 [THUNDER] JENKINSON: The lightning rod changes the world. 1104 00:59:11,799 --> 00:59:13,469 It's one of the most important inventions 1105 00:59:13,634 --> 00:59:14,934 of the Enlightenment and, of course, 1106 00:59:15,094 --> 00:59:16,224 he won't patent it. 1107 00:59:16,387 --> 00:59:17,967 He believes a good idea 1108 00:59:18,138 --> 00:59:19,558 belongs to humankind. 1109 00:59:19,723 --> 00:59:21,603 NARRATOR: Some religious leaders objected 1110 00:59:21,767 --> 00:59:24,397 that Franklin was attempting to interfere 1111 00:59:24,562 --> 00:59:30,072 with one of God's most effective methods of punishing sinners. 1112 00:59:30,234 --> 00:59:31,904 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Surely the Thunder of Heaven is no more 1113 00:59:32,069 --> 00:59:36,779 supernatural than the Rain, Hail or Sunshine of Heaven, 1114 00:59:36,949 --> 00:59:39,449 against the Inconvenience of which we guard 1115 00:59:39,618 --> 00:59:42,078 by Roofs & Shades without Scruple. 1116 00:59:42,246 --> 00:59:43,866 [THUNDER] 1117 00:59:44,039 --> 00:59:46,829 NARRATOR: Scientists in America and Europe 1118 00:59:47,001 --> 00:59:50,131 were hailing him for his achievements in electricity. 1119 00:59:50,296 --> 00:59:54,466 Harvard, Yale, and the College of William and Mary in Virginia 1120 00:59:54,633 --> 00:59:57,643 gave him honorary degrees. 1121 00:59:57,803 --> 01:00:00,893 London's Royal Society made him the first person 1122 01:00:01,056 --> 01:00:03,476 living outside of Britain to receive 1123 01:00:03,642 --> 01:00:06,812 its prestigious Copley Medal. 1124 01:00:06,979 --> 01:00:09,479 And one English scientist called his work 1125 01:00:09,648 --> 01:00:11,978 "the greatest discovery that has been made 1126 01:00:12,151 --> 01:00:15,401 since the time of Sir Isaac Newton." 1127 01:00:15,571 --> 01:00:20,201 In Germany, the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant said 1128 01:00:20,367 --> 01:00:24,867 Franklin had stolen the fire of heaven and called him 1129 01:00:25,039 --> 01:00:26,789 the "modern Prometheus." 1130 01:00:26,957 --> 01:00:28,707 [THUNDER] 1131 01:00:31,670 --> 01:00:37,130 ♪ 1132 01:00:37,301 --> 01:00:39,391 MAN AS FRANKLIN: By the collision of different sentiments, 1133 01:00:39,553 --> 01:00:42,063 sparks of truth are struck, 1134 01:00:42,222 --> 01:00:45,182 and political light is obtained. 1135 01:00:46,644 --> 01:00:48,604 BRANDS: He had a kind of social intelligence 1136 01:00:48,771 --> 01:00:52,151 that matched his book learning intelligence. 1137 01:00:52,316 --> 01:00:55,106 He really was an American genius, but part of his genius 1138 01:00:55,277 --> 01:00:58,907 lay in his ability to get people to work with him 1139 01:00:59,073 --> 01:01:00,323 and to move things in a direction 1140 01:01:00,491 --> 01:01:02,241 he wanted them to go. 1141 01:01:02,409 --> 01:01:04,829 NARRATOR: Franklin's involvement in civic affairs 1142 01:01:04,995 --> 01:01:08,075 took a new political turn when he was elected to 1143 01:01:08,248 --> 01:01:13,248 Pennsylvania's colonial Assembly in 1751. 1144 01:01:13,420 --> 01:01:15,590 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I conceived my becoming a member 1145 01:01:15,756 --> 01:01:19,126 would enlarge my power of doing good. 1146 01:01:19,301 --> 01:01:21,851 I would not however insinuate that my ambition was not 1147 01:01:22,012 --> 01:01:24,722 flattered by all these promotions. 1148 01:01:24,890 --> 01:01:26,560 It certainly was. 1149 01:01:26,725 --> 01:01:28,725 For considering my low beginning 1150 01:01:28,894 --> 01:01:31,234 they were great things to me. 1151 01:01:34,483 --> 01:01:37,113 NARRATOR: He worked on everything from regulations 1152 01:01:37,277 --> 01:01:39,147 on the size of bread loaves 1153 01:01:39,321 --> 01:01:41,871 to a tax on dogs; 1154 01:01:42,032 --> 01:01:44,372 pushed through a plan to pave Market Street 1155 01:01:44,535 --> 01:01:46,905 and keep it swept of dust; 1156 01:01:47,079 --> 01:01:49,459 then gained approval to install newly designed 1157 01:01:49,623 --> 01:01:51,583 street lamps in the city 1158 01:01:51,750 --> 01:01:54,420 with 4 replaceable glass panes 1159 01:01:54,586 --> 01:01:57,166 that made them easier to repair. 1160 01:01:58,799 --> 01:02:01,889 In 1752, the British government appointed 1161 01:02:02,052 --> 01:02:03,762 the 46-year-old Franklin 1162 01:02:03,929 --> 01:02:06,849 to the top postal job in America, 1163 01:02:07,015 --> 01:02:09,435 sharing the title of deputy postmaster 1164 01:02:09,601 --> 01:02:11,941 with a man from the South. 1165 01:02:12,104 --> 01:02:14,654 Franklin immediately started making the colonies' 1166 01:02:14,815 --> 01:02:17,895 mail service more efficient. 1167 01:02:18,068 --> 01:02:20,988 He established the first home-delivery system 1168 01:02:21,155 --> 01:02:23,615 and cut the time it took for a letter to get from 1169 01:02:23,782 --> 01:02:27,952 Philadelphia to New York City to one day. 1170 01:02:28,120 --> 01:02:30,500 On an inspection tour that took him through 1171 01:02:30,664 --> 01:02:33,384 Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, 1172 01:02:33,542 --> 01:02:38,052 he learned more about the colonies south of Pennsylvania. 1173 01:02:38,213 --> 01:02:41,093 ISAACSON: The American identity begins to form 1174 01:02:41,258 --> 01:02:44,678 when Franklin creates a Postal System that allows people 1175 01:02:44,845 --> 01:02:47,845 to communicate up and down the coast. 1176 01:02:48,015 --> 01:02:49,885 Most of the Colonies thought of themselves 1177 01:02:50,058 --> 01:02:51,638 closer to London. 1178 01:02:51,810 --> 01:02:53,940 Even letters would go, from Charleston, 1179 01:02:54,104 --> 01:02:56,444 if it had to go to Boston, it would go to London, 1180 01:02:56,607 --> 01:02:58,937 and then back to Boston. 1181 01:02:59,109 --> 01:03:01,239 So, by doing a Postal Road up and down the coast, 1182 01:03:01,403 --> 01:03:05,573 he helps knit the American Colonies together. 1183 01:03:05,741 --> 01:03:08,451 NARRATOR: The future prosperity of the British Empire, 1184 01:03:08,619 --> 01:03:10,449 Franklin wrote in one essay, 1185 01:03:10,621 --> 01:03:13,541 lay in the American colonies. 1186 01:03:13,707 --> 01:03:15,917 Because of the abundance of land, 1187 01:03:16,084 --> 01:03:18,714 he predicted the white population would double 1188 01:03:18,879 --> 01:03:21,629 every 20 years, and within a century 1189 01:03:21,799 --> 01:03:24,639 would even surpass England's. 1190 01:03:24,802 --> 01:03:28,762 All of this disregarded the sovereignty of Native peoples, 1191 01:03:28,931 --> 01:03:31,811 whose land it had been for millennia. 1192 01:03:34,061 --> 01:03:35,691 In the same essay, he argued, 1193 01:03:35,854 --> 01:03:38,324 strictly on economic grounds, 1194 01:03:38,482 --> 01:03:42,992 that the importation of black slaves diminished a nation 1195 01:03:43,153 --> 01:03:45,073 because "The Whites who have Slaves" 1196 01:03:45,239 --> 01:03:49,739 are "enfeebled" by not working themselves. 1197 01:03:49,910 --> 01:03:52,330 BROWN: He is combining racism 1198 01:03:52,496 --> 01:03:56,246 and opposition to the slave trade, simultaneously. 1199 01:03:56,416 --> 01:03:58,786 Some of the initial efforts 1200 01:03:58,961 --> 01:04:03,631 to stop the slave trade to North America 1201 01:04:03,799 --> 01:04:04,589 originated in concern that there were 1202 01:04:04,758 --> 01:04:07,048 too many black people there. 1203 01:04:07,219 --> 01:04:10,969 It was an immigration problem, rather than a moral problem. 1204 01:04:13,267 --> 01:04:15,887 NARRATOR: He also worried about the influx of immigrants 1205 01:04:16,061 --> 01:04:19,571 he described as having "a swarthy complexion," 1206 01:04:19,731 --> 01:04:22,571 including Spaniards, Italians, 1207 01:04:22,734 --> 01:04:26,614 French, Russians, and Swedes-- 1208 01:04:26,780 --> 01:04:28,740 even the Germans, who now represented 1209 01:04:28,907 --> 01:04:31,787 a third of his own colony. 1210 01:04:31,952 --> 01:04:34,452 "Why," he wrote, "should Pennsylvania, 1211 01:04:34,621 --> 01:04:39,171 "founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, 1212 01:04:39,334 --> 01:04:43,424 "who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us 1213 01:04:43,589 --> 01:04:46,969 instead of our Anglifying them." 1214 01:04:47,134 --> 01:04:48,394 [DOG BARKING] 1215 01:04:48,552 --> 01:04:50,802 MAN AS FRANKLIN: We have so fair an Opportunity, 1216 01:04:50,971 --> 01:04:53,521 by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, 1217 01:04:53,682 --> 01:04:57,102 of increasing the lovely White and Red. 1218 01:04:57,269 --> 01:05:00,979 But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, 1219 01:05:01,148 --> 01:05:05,238 for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind. 1220 01:05:06,612 --> 01:05:09,322 BROWN: In the middle decades of the 18th century, 1221 01:05:09,489 --> 01:05:13,159 notions of racial inferiority were so deeply embedded 1222 01:05:13,327 --> 01:05:16,497 that the unusual fact of this document, actually, 1223 01:05:16,663 --> 01:05:20,463 is how he says, at the end, "Or maybe I'm just biased 1224 01:05:20,626 --> 01:05:23,546 in favor of people like myself." 1225 01:05:23,712 --> 01:05:27,632 Franklin doesn't deserve particular praise for that. 1226 01:05:27,799 --> 01:05:32,139 But it is unusual in the sense of 1227 01:05:32,304 --> 01:05:35,314 he's being self-reflective about his own prejudices. 1228 01:05:35,474 --> 01:05:38,484 It's the self-reflective part which is slightly unusual. 1229 01:05:38,644 --> 01:05:40,354 The prejudices are not. 1230 01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:42,770 [BIRDS SINGING] 1231 01:05:44,942 --> 01:05:48,242 NARRATOR: In 1754, increased white settlement 1232 01:05:48,403 --> 01:05:49,863 in the Ohio River Valley 1233 01:05:50,030 --> 01:05:52,740 ignited another struggle with France 1234 01:05:52,908 --> 01:05:55,078 for control of Native lands-- 1235 01:05:55,243 --> 01:05:59,583 what would come to be called the French and Indian War. 1236 01:05:59,748 --> 01:06:03,248 Franklin was chosen as one of 4 Pennsylvania delegates 1237 01:06:03,418 --> 01:06:06,758 to meet with representatives from 6 other colonies 1238 01:06:06,922 --> 01:06:11,132 in Albany, New York, to negotiate with Native Americans 1239 01:06:11,301 --> 01:06:15,311 they hoped would side with England in the conflict. 1240 01:06:15,472 --> 01:06:18,142 He was familiar with the way the Iroquois nations 1241 01:06:18,308 --> 01:06:21,808 had formed a confederation, the Haudenosaunee, 1242 01:06:21,979 --> 01:06:23,729 more than a century earlier 1243 01:06:23,897 --> 01:06:26,227 that promoted unity through consensus 1244 01:06:26,400 --> 01:06:29,360 on matters that affected them all. 1245 01:06:29,528 --> 01:06:32,528 It gave him an idea. 1246 01:06:32,698 --> 01:06:34,828 MAN AS FRANKLIN: It would be a very strange thing, 1247 01:06:34,992 --> 01:06:37,202 if 6 nations of ignorant savages should be 1248 01:06:37,369 --> 01:06:40,289 capable of forming a scheme for such a union, 1249 01:06:40,455 --> 01:06:42,785 and be able to execute it in such a manner 1250 01:06:42,958 --> 01:06:45,628 as that it has subsisted for ages, 1251 01:06:45,794 --> 01:06:48,304 and appears indissoluble; 1252 01:06:48,463 --> 01:06:51,973 and yet that a like union should be impracticable 1253 01:06:52,134 --> 01:06:55,054 for 10 or a dozen English colonies, 1254 01:06:55,220 --> 01:06:58,060 to whom it is more necessary, 1255 01:06:58,223 --> 01:07:01,063 and must be more advantageous. 1256 01:07:02,269 --> 01:07:04,019 NARRATOR: Franklin urged his fellow delegates 1257 01:07:04,187 --> 01:07:07,107 to consider creating their own charter 1258 01:07:07,274 --> 01:07:10,284 to encourage the colonies to work together. 1259 01:07:10,444 --> 01:07:14,364 He and Thomas Hutchinson, an ally from Massachusetts, 1260 01:07:14,531 --> 01:07:17,741 spearheaded a committee that drew up what was called 1261 01:07:17,909 --> 01:07:21,079 the Albany Plan of Union. 1262 01:07:21,246 --> 01:07:24,366 It proposed a Grand Council for the Colonies, 1263 01:07:24,541 --> 01:07:27,461 empowered to make treaties with Indians, 1264 01:07:27,627 --> 01:07:32,377 regulate trade, oversee land sales on the frontier, 1265 01:07:32,549 --> 01:07:36,009 build forts and raise troops for common defense, 1266 01:07:36,178 --> 01:07:38,718 and enact whatever taxes and duties 1267 01:07:38,889 --> 01:07:41,269 were needed for it all. 1268 01:07:41,433 --> 01:07:44,313 Individual colonies would keep their own authority 1269 01:07:44,478 --> 01:07:49,108 over everything else under their own constitutions. 1270 01:07:49,274 --> 01:07:51,744 In an article in the "Gazette," he attached 1271 01:07:51,902 --> 01:07:54,742 a drawing showing a dismembered snake 1272 01:07:54,905 --> 01:07:56,905 representing the colonies. 1273 01:07:57,074 --> 01:08:00,334 At the bottom was a dire warning. 1274 01:08:00,494 --> 01:08:03,334 ISAACSON: It says, "Join or die." 1275 01:08:03,497 --> 01:08:07,037 And it's his way of saying that we have to come together 1276 01:08:07,209 --> 01:08:10,589 to have one national sensibility. 1277 01:08:10,754 --> 01:08:12,304 So, he's the great visionary 1278 01:08:12,464 --> 01:08:13,974 that sees that we have to 1279 01:08:14,132 --> 01:08:16,552 knit the Colonies together, 1280 01:08:16,718 --> 01:08:19,388 rather than have each of the Colonies think of themselves 1281 01:08:19,554 --> 01:08:23,144 as sort of a separate entity reporting back to London. 1282 01:08:23,308 --> 01:08:25,518 NARRATOR: On both sides of the Atlantic, 1283 01:08:25,685 --> 01:08:30,065 the Albany Plan was considered too radical. 1284 01:08:30,232 --> 01:08:31,942 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Its Fate was singular. 1285 01:08:32,109 --> 01:08:33,899 The Assemblies did not adopt it, 1286 01:08:34,069 --> 01:08:37,359 as they all thought there was too much Prerogative in it; 1287 01:08:37,531 --> 01:08:42,161 and in England it was judg'd to have too much of the democratic. 1288 01:08:42,327 --> 01:08:43,747 Despite all the failure, and it was 1289 01:08:43,912 --> 01:08:46,412 a total failure, [LAUGHS] 1290 01:08:46,581 --> 01:08:50,211 it did possibly plant some kind of seed 1291 01:08:50,377 --> 01:08:54,917 for future organization among the Colonies. 1292 01:08:55,090 --> 01:08:58,050 ♪ 1293 01:08:58,218 --> 01:09:01,048 NARRATOR: In 1755, Franklin met with 1294 01:09:01,221 --> 01:09:03,141 Major General Edward Braddock, 1295 01:09:03,306 --> 01:09:05,636 who had arrived in America boasting 1296 01:09:05,809 --> 01:09:09,599 that he and his British redcoats would have little trouble 1297 01:09:09,771 --> 01:09:13,481 defeating the French and their Native American allies. 1298 01:09:13,650 --> 01:09:17,450 Franklin warned the general against overconfidence. 1299 01:09:17,612 --> 01:09:20,992 [GUNFIRE] On July 9, 1755, 1300 01:09:21,158 --> 01:09:23,328 8 miles from Fort Duquesne, 1301 01:09:23,493 --> 01:09:25,953 where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers 1302 01:09:26,121 --> 01:09:28,371 join to form the Ohio, 1303 01:09:28,540 --> 01:09:31,330 Braddock's forces stumbled into an ambush 1304 01:09:31,501 --> 01:09:35,631 and were routed by French and Indian soldiers. 1305 01:09:35,797 --> 01:09:39,507 Nearly 1,000 of the British were killed or wounded; 1306 01:09:39,676 --> 01:09:44,346 most of the officers died, including Braddock. 1307 01:09:44,514 --> 01:09:47,894 In the battle, two horses were shot out from underneath 1308 01:09:48,059 --> 01:09:49,519 a young lieutenant colonel 1309 01:09:49,686 --> 01:09:52,266 and land speculator from Virginia, 1310 01:09:52,439 --> 01:09:55,439 and 4 bullets pierced his coat. 1311 01:09:55,609 --> 01:10:01,239 But somehow, 23-year-old George Washington survived. 1312 01:10:02,991 --> 01:10:04,661 The French and Indians soon pushed 1313 01:10:04,826 --> 01:10:06,446 farther into Pennsylvania, 1314 01:10:06,620 --> 01:10:10,370 burning houses, killing and capturing settlers, 1315 01:10:10,540 --> 01:10:13,210 spreading panic across the colony. 1316 01:10:13,376 --> 01:10:16,626 In Philadelphia, the Assembly seemed paralyzed. 1317 01:10:16,796 --> 01:10:21,716 Dominated by Quaker pacifists, it resisted raising an army. 1318 01:10:23,178 --> 01:10:24,758 Meanwhile, the governor, appointed by 1319 01:10:24,930 --> 01:10:26,930 William Penn's sons in England, 1320 01:10:27,098 --> 01:10:29,268 steadfastly rejected any tax 1321 01:10:29,434 --> 01:10:32,024 on the family's lands in Pennsylvania 1322 01:10:32,187 --> 01:10:35,477 to help defend the colony. 1323 01:10:35,649 --> 01:10:38,149 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Vassals fight at their lord's expense; 1324 01:10:38,318 --> 01:10:40,448 but our lord would have us defend his estate 1325 01:10:40,612 --> 01:10:42,362 at our own expense! 1326 01:10:42,530 --> 01:10:45,830 It is even more slavish than slavery itself. 1327 01:10:47,577 --> 01:10:49,157 NARRATOR: When a raiding party struck a settlement 1328 01:10:49,329 --> 01:10:52,209 only 75 miles north of Philadelphia, 1329 01:10:52,374 --> 01:10:54,714 Franklin led a force of militiamen, 1330 01:10:54,876 --> 01:10:59,126 including his son William, over rough terrain to the scene, 1331 01:10:59,297 --> 01:11:00,837 where they buried the dead 1332 01:11:01,007 --> 01:11:02,427 and began to build 1333 01:11:02,592 --> 01:11:04,012 a series of forts. 1334 01:11:05,387 --> 01:11:07,887 The winter weather was cold and wet. 1335 01:11:08,056 --> 01:11:10,176 Franklin spent his 50th birthday 1336 01:11:10,350 --> 01:11:13,060 encamped at Lehigh Gap. 1337 01:11:15,438 --> 01:11:18,358 But the immediate crisis had been met. 1338 01:11:18,525 --> 01:11:22,645 In Philadelphia, Franklin was hailed as a hero. 1339 01:11:22,821 --> 01:11:26,951 "The people," he wrote a friend, "happen to love me." 1340 01:11:30,620 --> 01:11:34,170 NARRATOR: In June of 1757, Franklin once more 1341 01:11:34,332 --> 01:11:37,842 found himself on a ship bound for England. 1342 01:11:38,003 --> 01:11:41,383 The Assembly had sent him on a mission to try to negotiate 1343 01:11:41,548 --> 01:11:43,968 with the Penn family in person 1344 01:11:44,134 --> 01:11:46,644 about their refusal to be taxed. 1345 01:11:48,138 --> 01:11:51,098 He brought his son William along as his assistant, 1346 01:11:51,266 --> 01:11:54,306 but Deborah and Sally stayed behind. 1347 01:11:54,477 --> 01:11:56,397 Deborah worried that her husband's ship 1348 01:11:56,563 --> 01:11:58,823 might be attacked by the French 1349 01:11:58,982 --> 01:12:02,492 or go down in the dangerous waters of the North Atlantic. 1350 01:12:04,696 --> 01:12:05,986 WOMAN AS DEBORAH FRANKLIN: I have been in much pain 1351 01:12:06,156 --> 01:12:08,696 for some days on account of my Husband, 1352 01:12:08,867 --> 01:12:11,947 for by this time he is, as I suppose, 1353 01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:14,710 near the Land's End of England, 1354 01:12:14,873 --> 01:12:17,753 and of course in danger of being taken, 1355 01:12:17,917 --> 01:12:20,957 which I pray God prevent. 1356 01:12:21,129 --> 01:12:24,299 I am not able to bear the least thing in the world 1357 01:12:24,466 --> 01:12:27,466 and I find myself very weak indeed. 1358 01:12:30,597 --> 01:12:31,967 NARRATOR: Approaching the coast of England, 1359 01:12:32,140 --> 01:12:34,560 Franklin's ship was nearly 1360 01:12:34,726 --> 01:12:35,726 wrecked on the rocks, 1361 01:12:35,894 --> 01:12:37,904 just as his wife had feared, 1362 01:12:38,063 --> 01:12:41,613 but finally landed safely. 1363 01:12:41,775 --> 01:12:44,235 "Were I a Roman Catholic," he wrote Deborah, 1364 01:12:44,402 --> 01:12:47,282 "perhaps I should on this occasion 1365 01:12:47,447 --> 01:12:50,277 "vow to build a chapel to some saint; 1366 01:12:50,450 --> 01:12:53,620 "but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, 1367 01:12:53,787 --> 01:12:56,367 it should be to build a lighthouse." 1368 01:12:58,083 --> 01:13:01,923 In London, he found lodging at a home on Craven Street, 1369 01:13:02,087 --> 01:13:04,917 a short walk from the British government offices 1370 01:13:05,090 --> 01:13:06,760 at Whitehall. 1371 01:13:06,925 --> 01:13:09,005 ISAACSON: When he gets to London, Franklin tries to 1372 01:13:09,177 --> 01:13:11,677 recreate his family life. 1373 01:13:11,846 --> 01:13:14,426 And, so, he finds a landlady who's quite like 1374 01:13:14,599 --> 01:13:17,309 Deborah Franklin, named Margaret Stevenson, 1375 01:13:17,477 --> 01:13:19,647 who has a daughter named Polly. 1376 01:13:19,813 --> 01:13:22,363 And they set up on Craven Street a replica 1377 01:13:22,524 --> 01:13:25,244 of what he had back in Philadelphia. 1378 01:13:27,695 --> 01:13:29,775 NARRATOR: Franklin and William had brought along 1379 01:13:29,948 --> 01:13:36,408 two enslaved men, known only as Peter and King, as servants. 1380 01:13:36,579 --> 01:13:39,289 "Peter behaves very well to me in general," 1381 01:13:39,457 --> 01:13:41,207 Franklin wrote home to Deborah, 1382 01:13:41,376 --> 01:13:46,626 "and begins to know the town so as to go anywhere on errands." 1383 01:13:46,798 --> 01:13:49,508 But King, sensing an opportunity for freedom 1384 01:13:49,676 --> 01:13:54,096 in his new surroundings, ran away. 1385 01:13:54,264 --> 01:13:56,724 DUNBAR: What we know about these men 1386 01:13:56,891 --> 01:13:58,601 is relatively little. 1387 01:13:58,768 --> 01:14:02,608 What we do know is that, while Ben Franklin's 1388 01:14:02,772 --> 01:14:05,822 feelings or opinions about slavery 1389 01:14:05,984 --> 01:14:08,404 may have changed over time, 1390 01:14:08,570 --> 01:14:14,740 he doesn't set his slaves free, ever. 1391 01:14:14,909 --> 01:14:17,699 They run off and he doesn't necessarily pursue them, 1392 01:14:17,871 --> 01:14:21,211 perhaps, with as much vigor as he might have. 1393 01:14:21,374 --> 01:14:23,174 And they die off. 1394 01:14:23,334 --> 01:14:27,344 But at no moment do we really see Franklin step out front 1395 01:14:27,505 --> 01:14:30,005 and say, "I am setting an example 1396 01:14:30,175 --> 01:14:32,085 by setting my slaves free." 1397 01:14:34,721 --> 01:14:36,681 NARRATOR: When Franklin met with the Penn family, 1398 01:14:36,848 --> 01:14:39,678 they categorically dismissed the notion that they should 1399 01:14:39,851 --> 01:14:42,271 pay any taxes at all. 1400 01:14:42,437 --> 01:14:44,187 They saw the colony solely as 1401 01:14:44,355 --> 01:14:47,475 a source of wealth and power for them, 1402 01:14:47,650 --> 01:14:50,650 and declared Franklin a malicious villain. 1403 01:14:52,238 --> 01:14:54,528 Franklin decided to change tactics. 1404 01:14:54,699 --> 01:14:56,829 He thought he might be able to persuade 1405 01:14:56,993 --> 01:14:59,543 King George II and his ministers 1406 01:14:59,704 --> 01:15:03,294 to declare Pennsylvania a Crown colony, 1407 01:15:03,458 --> 01:15:05,628 like most of the others in America, 1408 01:15:05,793 --> 01:15:09,053 where governors were appointed by the King. 1409 01:15:11,090 --> 01:15:13,590 He let Deborah know he would not be returning as quickly 1410 01:15:13,760 --> 01:15:16,350 as the two of them had planned. 1411 01:15:16,513 --> 01:15:19,643 Franklin was enjoying London. 1412 01:15:19,807 --> 01:15:23,597 ♪ 1413 01:15:23,770 --> 01:15:25,810 ISAACSON: London was the greatest city in the world 1414 01:15:25,980 --> 01:15:27,150 at the time. 1415 01:15:27,315 --> 01:15:28,645 It was filled with coffee shops 1416 01:15:28,816 --> 01:15:33,656 and had a thriving intellectual middle class. 1417 01:15:33,821 --> 01:15:35,321 And Franklin goes around with his friends, 1418 01:15:35,490 --> 01:15:37,620 mainly scientists and writers, 1419 01:15:37,784 --> 01:15:40,084 and they spend their afternoons in the coffee shops 1420 01:15:40,245 --> 01:15:42,245 discussing new ideas. 1421 01:15:42,413 --> 01:15:44,333 That glittering, sophisticated world 1422 01:15:44,499 --> 01:15:46,629 was made for Ben Franklin. 1423 01:15:46,793 --> 01:15:49,803 He was made for a dinner party and conversation. 1424 01:15:49,963 --> 01:15:51,923 Philadelphia might have been extraordinary 1425 01:15:52,090 --> 01:15:54,930 for the New World, but it couldn't compare 1426 01:15:55,093 --> 01:16:00,103 to the absolute sophistication of the Old World. 1427 01:16:00,265 --> 01:16:02,975 BRANDS: There were people who shared his views on science; 1428 01:16:03,142 --> 01:16:05,442 there were people who shared his broadminded view 1429 01:16:05,603 --> 01:16:08,363 of all sorts of human institutions. 1430 01:16:08,523 --> 01:16:11,113 He made friends very easily. 1431 01:16:11,276 --> 01:16:13,896 In fact, if Debbie 1432 01:16:14,070 --> 01:16:18,740 had been willing to relocate from Philadelphia to London, 1433 01:16:18,908 --> 01:16:20,408 Franklin might very well 1434 01:16:20,577 --> 01:16:22,907 have become a permanent resident of London. 1435 01:16:23,079 --> 01:16:26,169 NARRATOR: In England, as he had in America, 1436 01:16:26,332 --> 01:16:30,002 Franklin forged intellectual and affectionate relationships 1437 01:16:30,169 --> 01:16:31,629 with a number of young women 1438 01:16:31,796 --> 01:16:34,506 whose intelligence he appreciated-- 1439 01:16:34,674 --> 01:16:37,474 exchanging letters, providing advice, 1440 01:16:37,635 --> 01:16:40,385 and encouraging their ambitions; 1441 01:16:40,555 --> 01:16:42,515 the kind of attention he neglected to give 1442 01:16:42,682 --> 01:16:44,642 his own daughter Sally. 1443 01:16:46,853 --> 01:16:49,903 SKEMP: Sally was born at a bad time, I think, 1444 01:16:50,064 --> 01:16:53,234 just as Benjamin Franklin became involved in politics 1445 01:16:53,401 --> 01:16:55,321 and was away most of the time. 1446 01:16:55,486 --> 01:16:56,356 And, so, I don't think she ever really 1447 01:16:56,529 --> 01:16:58,159 got to know her father. 1448 01:16:58,323 --> 01:17:00,453 And her father didn't seem particularly interested 1449 01:17:00,617 --> 01:17:03,747 in knowing her in those days. 1450 01:17:03,911 --> 01:17:05,291 She wanted the education that her brother had 1451 01:17:05,455 --> 01:17:06,705 and never got it. 1452 01:17:06,873 --> 01:17:08,123 She wanted to go to England with him; 1453 01:17:08,291 --> 01:17:10,421 that never happened. 1454 01:17:10,585 --> 01:17:11,955 NARRATOR: With William by his side, 1455 01:17:12,128 --> 01:17:16,168 Franklin traveled beyond London whenever possible. 1456 01:17:16,341 --> 01:17:18,511 A friend reported to Deborah that 1457 01:17:18,676 --> 01:17:21,796 "William is daily in the company of his father, 1458 01:17:21,971 --> 01:17:25,561 "who is at the same time his friend, his brother, 1459 01:17:25,725 --> 01:17:28,685 his intimate, and easy companion." 1460 01:17:30,521 --> 01:17:32,361 [CHURCH BELL RINGS] 1461 01:17:32,523 --> 01:17:34,483 In Edinburgh, they socialized with 1462 01:17:34,651 --> 01:17:37,071 two of the Enlightenment's leading thinkers, 1463 01:17:37,236 --> 01:17:42,826 the economist Adam Smith and the philosopher David Hume. 1464 01:17:42,992 --> 01:17:45,412 At St. Andrews, the university placed 1465 01:17:45,578 --> 01:17:48,498 a crimson and white robe over Franklin's shoulder 1466 01:17:48,665 --> 01:17:50,535 and presented him, a man with 1467 01:17:50,708 --> 01:17:53,538 only two years of formal education, 1468 01:17:53,711 --> 01:17:56,011 with an honorary doctorate. 1469 01:17:56,172 --> 01:17:59,512 From that moment on, most people referred to him 1470 01:17:59,676 --> 01:18:01,716 as Doctor Franklin. 1471 01:18:05,932 --> 01:18:07,892 One evening in Cambridge, he attended 1472 01:18:08,059 --> 01:18:09,439 a concert of sorts, 1473 01:18:09,602 --> 01:18:11,812 where the rims of wine glasses 1474 01:18:11,979 --> 01:18:14,769 were rubbed to produce musical notes. 1475 01:18:16,776 --> 01:18:18,316 COHN: Franklin looked at that and he thought, 1476 01:18:18,486 --> 01:18:21,986 "Now, that's just inefficient." 1477 01:18:22,156 --> 01:18:26,076 Why move your arms to that degree? 1478 01:18:26,244 --> 01:18:29,334 Why not take the glasses and have them move 1479 01:18:29,497 --> 01:18:32,127 and your hand stay still? 1480 01:18:32,291 --> 01:18:34,251 NARRATOR: He hired a London glassblower to create 1481 01:18:34,419 --> 01:18:40,759 a series of 36 glass bowls, to specific thicknesses and sizes. 1482 01:18:43,386 --> 01:18:46,306 COHN: And rather than having your fingers 1483 01:18:46,472 --> 01:18:48,022 move around the glass, 1484 01:18:48,182 --> 01:18:49,522 the glasses rotated, 1485 01:18:49,684 --> 01:18:51,444 and he wet his fingers 1486 01:18:51,602 --> 01:18:52,942 and played it like a keyboard. 1487 01:18:53,104 --> 01:18:54,864 [MUSIC PLAYING] 1488 01:19:00,445 --> 01:19:02,945 NARRATOR: He named his new invention the armonica, 1489 01:19:03,114 --> 01:19:05,834 after the Italian word for harmony, 1490 01:19:05,992 --> 01:19:09,702 and charmed visitors with performances on it. 1491 01:19:09,871 --> 01:19:12,041 Soon, more of the instruments were being 1492 01:19:12,206 --> 01:19:15,916 manufactured and sold, though Franklin again refused 1493 01:19:16,085 --> 01:19:18,835 to patent or profit from his invention. 1494 01:19:20,882 --> 01:19:22,552 What pleased him most was that, 1495 01:19:22,717 --> 01:19:24,387 in musical circles throughout 1496 01:19:24,552 --> 01:19:26,182 England and Europe, 1497 01:19:26,345 --> 01:19:27,345 the armonica 1498 01:19:27,513 --> 01:19:28,893 created a sensation. 1499 01:19:32,310 --> 01:19:33,810 In Austria, Franklin's invention 1500 01:19:33,978 --> 01:19:37,058 provided the music for a royal wedding. 1501 01:19:37,231 --> 01:19:39,031 Even Mozart and Beethoven 1502 01:19:39,192 --> 01:19:42,572 would compose chamber pieces for it. 1503 01:19:44,614 --> 01:19:48,494 COHN: The sound it made was described as 1504 01:19:48,659 --> 01:19:50,909 celestial ravishment. 1505 01:19:51,078 --> 01:19:52,828 [MUSIC PLAYING] 1506 01:19:58,795 --> 01:20:00,795 [THUNDER] [BIRDS SINGING] 1507 01:20:05,468 --> 01:20:07,178 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I have long been of the opinion 1508 01:20:07,345 --> 01:20:08,675 that the foundations of 1509 01:20:08,846 --> 01:20:10,596 the future grandeur and stability 1510 01:20:10,765 --> 01:20:14,095 of the British Empire lie in America, 1511 01:20:14,268 --> 01:20:17,898 broad and strong enough to support the greatest 1512 01:20:18,064 --> 01:20:21,734 political structure human wisdom ever yet erected. 1513 01:20:21,901 --> 01:20:25,241 [THUNDER] [EXPLOSIONS] 1514 01:20:25,404 --> 01:20:30,124 NARRATOR: By 1761, the French and Indian War had exploded 1515 01:20:30,284 --> 01:20:33,914 into a global conflict called the Seven Years' War, 1516 01:20:34,080 --> 01:20:37,170 involving all the European powers. 1517 01:20:37,333 --> 01:20:41,003 In North America, England had won a decisive victory 1518 01:20:41,170 --> 01:20:44,720 against the French by capturing Quebec. 1519 01:20:46,092 --> 01:20:48,262 MAN AS FRANKLIN: No one can rejoice more sincerely 1520 01:20:48,427 --> 01:20:52,557 than I do on the possible addition of Canada; 1521 01:20:52,723 --> 01:20:55,353 and this not merely as I am a colonist, 1522 01:20:55,518 --> 01:20:58,808 but as I am a Briton. 1523 01:21:00,857 --> 01:21:02,777 BROWN: Franklin is one of the earliest to say, 1524 01:21:02,942 --> 01:21:05,702 "Look, the weight of the British world 1525 01:21:05,862 --> 01:21:08,572 is going to be in North America." 1526 01:21:08,739 --> 01:21:11,659 And he put himself at the center of it. 1527 01:21:11,826 --> 01:21:16,156 He imagined himself as being the kind of linchpin between 1528 01:21:16,330 --> 01:21:20,750 these--this emerging empire in North America 1529 01:21:20,918 --> 01:21:23,498 and the seat of power in London. 1530 01:21:23,671 --> 01:21:27,171 NARRATOR: By this time, William Franklin had completed 1531 01:21:27,341 --> 01:21:28,591 his legal studies 1532 01:21:28,759 --> 01:21:31,009 and enjoyed socializing with 1533 01:21:31,178 --> 01:21:34,308 wealthy friends in the upper class. 1534 01:21:34,473 --> 01:21:36,603 William also took up with 1535 01:21:36,767 --> 01:21:39,687 women from London's high society, 1536 01:21:39,854 --> 01:21:44,034 and others with less sterling reputations. 1537 01:21:44,191 --> 01:21:48,201 Just like his own father, he sired a son out of wedlock. 1538 01:21:48,362 --> 01:21:51,872 Unlike his father, William arranged for the baby boy 1539 01:21:52,033 --> 01:21:56,163 to be secretly placed in a foster home. 1540 01:21:56,329 --> 01:21:59,169 ♪ 1541 01:21:59,332 --> 01:22:02,172 On September 22, 1761, 1542 01:22:02,335 --> 01:22:05,665 hundreds of England's well-born and well-connected 1543 01:22:05,838 --> 01:22:07,668 gathered in Westminster Hall 1544 01:22:07,840 --> 01:22:10,090 for the coronation of a new monarch: 1545 01:22:10,259 --> 01:22:12,969 King George III. [CHURCH BELL RINGS] 1546 01:22:13,137 --> 01:22:15,257 Among those present for the occasion 1547 01:22:15,431 --> 01:22:18,681 were two staunch defenders of the Empire-- 1548 01:22:18,851 --> 01:22:21,521 Benjamin and William Franklin. 1549 01:22:23,147 --> 01:22:26,777 From the balcony, Benjamin watched the lavish ritual. 1550 01:22:28,069 --> 01:22:30,399 On the hall's floor, his son William 1551 01:22:30,571 --> 01:22:32,371 stood with a more privileged crowd 1552 01:22:32,531 --> 01:22:34,991 of nobles and high officials. 1553 01:22:37,036 --> 01:22:39,156 Then William marched in a small procession 1554 01:22:39,330 --> 01:22:41,580 into Westminster Abbey, where the crown 1555 01:22:41,749 --> 01:22:44,999 was to be placed on George's head. 1556 01:22:45,169 --> 01:22:52,719 ♪ 1557 01:22:52,885 --> 01:22:55,095 Benjamin, not part of that select group, 1558 01:22:55,262 --> 01:22:58,682 walked back to Craven Street alone. 1559 01:23:01,310 --> 01:23:03,980 Franklin's efforts to elevate his son's station 1560 01:23:04,146 --> 01:23:06,016 were paying off. 1561 01:23:06,190 --> 01:23:07,940 William had caught the attention of ministers 1562 01:23:08,109 --> 01:23:10,189 in the new king's government 1563 01:23:10,361 --> 01:23:13,611 who decided that he, though barely into his early thirties, 1564 01:23:13,781 --> 01:23:16,161 was a natural leader. 1565 01:23:16,325 --> 01:23:18,405 With their support, William Franklin 1566 01:23:18,577 --> 01:23:23,617 was chosen to be the next royal governor of New Jersey. 1567 01:23:23,791 --> 01:23:26,041 And there was other good news. 1568 01:23:26,210 --> 01:23:29,130 William had fallen in love with Elizabeth Downes, 1569 01:23:29,296 --> 01:23:30,966 the daughter of a wealthy owner of 1570 01:23:31,132 --> 01:23:33,682 sugar plantations in Barbados, 1571 01:23:33,843 --> 01:23:36,433 and they were now engaged. 1572 01:23:36,595 --> 01:23:39,425 Benjamin Franklin had been gone from Philadelphia 1573 01:23:39,598 --> 01:23:41,478 for 5 years. 1574 01:23:41,642 --> 01:23:47,902 He was now 56, and still captivated by life in England. 1575 01:23:48,065 --> 01:23:49,815 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Why should this island, 1576 01:23:49,984 --> 01:23:52,364 which compared to America is but like 1577 01:23:52,528 --> 01:23:54,698 a stepping stone in a brook, 1578 01:23:54,864 --> 01:23:57,744 enjoy in almost every neighborhood 1579 01:23:57,908 --> 01:24:01,788 more sensible, virtuous, and elegant minds 1580 01:24:01,954 --> 01:24:08,094 than we can collect in ranging 100 leagues of our vast forests? 1581 01:24:10,046 --> 01:24:11,876 NARRATOR: In the summer of 1762, 1582 01:24:12,048 --> 01:24:14,628 he booked passage for Philadelphia, 1583 01:24:14,800 --> 01:24:18,100 determined to convince Deborah to come back with him, 1584 01:24:18,262 --> 01:24:20,142 and promising his English friends 1585 01:24:20,306 --> 01:24:24,186 he intended to return to London permanently. 1586 01:24:25,811 --> 01:24:27,401 MAN AS FRANKLIN: In two Years at farthest 1587 01:24:27,563 --> 01:24:30,403 I hope to settle all my Affairs in such a Manner, 1588 01:24:30,566 --> 01:24:34,396 as that I may then conveniently remove to England, 1589 01:24:34,570 --> 01:24:38,370 provided we can persuade the good Woman to cross the Seas. 1590 01:24:38,532 --> 01:24:41,162 That will be the great Difficulty. 1591 01:24:42,912 --> 01:24:43,662 NARRATOR: Franklin would be at sea 1592 01:24:43,829 --> 01:24:45,249 when William was married 1593 01:24:45,414 --> 01:24:48,584 in St. George's Church in London, 1594 01:24:48,751 --> 01:24:50,671 and when he bowed to George III 1595 01:24:50,836 --> 01:24:52,796 in St. James's Palace, 1596 01:24:52,963 --> 01:24:55,223 kissed the new king's ring, 1597 01:24:55,382 --> 01:24:59,722 and swore his eternal allegiance to the crown. 1598 01:25:02,348 --> 01:25:05,098 ♪ 1599 01:25:05,267 --> 01:25:07,977 NARRATOR: On November 1, 1762, 1600 01:25:08,145 --> 01:25:11,565 Benjamin Franklin arrived back in Philadelphia. 1601 01:25:11,732 --> 01:25:14,282 It wasn't a teeming metropolis like London, 1602 01:25:14,443 --> 01:25:17,993 but with a population of nearly 25,000, 1603 01:25:18,155 --> 01:25:20,485 it had surpassed Boston and New York 1604 01:25:20,658 --> 01:25:24,328 as the largest city in the American colonies. 1605 01:25:24,495 --> 01:25:29,035 Deborah and 19-year-old Sally welcomed him home. 1606 01:25:29,208 --> 01:25:31,958 A few months later, William arrived from England 1607 01:25:32,128 --> 01:25:34,128 with his new wife Elizabeth, 1608 01:25:34,296 --> 01:25:37,376 and Franklin accompanied them across the Delaware River 1609 01:25:37,550 --> 01:25:40,430 to New Jersey, where Benjamin watched proudly 1610 01:25:40,594 --> 01:25:44,224 as his son became that colony's ninth governor. 1611 01:25:46,475 --> 01:25:48,685 As deputy postmaster of His Majesty's 1612 01:25:48,853 --> 01:25:50,443 colonies in North America, 1613 01:25:50,604 --> 01:25:53,864 Franklin embarked on another inspection tour 1614 01:25:54,024 --> 01:25:56,154 that took him through 6 colonies, 1615 01:25:56,318 --> 01:25:58,898 all the way to New Hampshire. 1616 01:25:59,071 --> 01:26:03,081 The trip lasted 5 months. [HORSE WHINNIES] 1617 01:26:03,242 --> 01:26:05,332 JENKINSON: Franklin sees the many different 1618 01:26:05,494 --> 01:26:07,164 American styles. 1619 01:26:07,329 --> 01:26:09,079 There's a Northern community; 1620 01:26:09,248 --> 01:26:10,078 there's a New England community; 1621 01:26:10,249 --> 01:26:11,669 there are the Middle Colonies; 1622 01:26:11,834 --> 01:26:13,384 the Upper South; the Lower South. 1623 01:26:13,544 --> 01:26:16,884 He begins to understand the vast complexity 1624 01:26:17,047 --> 01:26:18,547 of the Colonial situation. 1625 01:26:18,716 --> 01:26:20,216 And nobody else did. 1626 01:26:20,384 --> 01:26:23,434 He was the best-informed person in the New World 1627 01:26:23,596 --> 01:26:26,426 about the diversity of geography, of economy, 1628 01:26:26,599 --> 01:26:31,559 of social structure, and he also saw discontentments. 1629 01:26:31,729 --> 01:26:34,769 There was concern about representation; 1630 01:26:34,940 --> 01:26:38,110 [ROOSTER CLUCKS] there was concern about arbitrary economic tariffs 1631 01:26:38,277 --> 01:26:40,397 that were being imposed by Britain, 1632 01:26:40,571 --> 01:26:42,571 and the increasing sense that the British 1633 01:26:42,740 --> 01:26:45,370 don't really understand us 1634 01:26:45,534 --> 01:26:49,374 and they're also using us as an extraction machine 1635 01:26:49,538 --> 01:26:50,748 for British wealth. 1636 01:26:50,915 --> 01:26:52,035 And, even though they will 1637 01:26:52,208 --> 01:26:53,998 say we're British citizens, 1638 01:26:54,168 --> 01:26:56,088 they're not treating us with full respect 1639 01:26:56,253 --> 01:26:58,593 that an Englishman deserves. 1640 01:26:58,756 --> 01:27:02,376 ♪ 1641 01:27:02,551 --> 01:27:05,471 WOMAN AS DEBORAH FRANKLIN: I went to hear the Negro children at Church. 1642 01:27:06,722 --> 01:27:10,812 There were 17 that answered very prettily indeed, 1643 01:27:10,976 --> 01:27:16,816 and 5 or 6 that were too little, but all behaved very decently. 1644 01:27:16,982 --> 01:27:20,692 It gave me a great deal of Pleasure, and I shall send 1645 01:27:20,861 --> 01:27:22,281 Othello to the School. 1646 01:27:23,739 --> 01:27:26,369 NARRATOR: Deborah Franklin had enrolled Othello, 1647 01:27:26,533 --> 01:27:29,083 an enslaved child in the Franklin household, 1648 01:27:29,245 --> 01:27:31,745 in a new school in Philadelphia, 1649 01:27:31,914 --> 01:27:35,634 part of an effort to educate Black children in North America 1650 01:27:35,793 --> 01:27:39,003 that Benjamin Franklin had endorsed. 1651 01:27:39,171 --> 01:27:41,421 At Deborah's urging, her husband 1652 01:27:41,590 --> 01:27:44,800 made a personal visit to the school. 1653 01:27:44,969 --> 01:27:47,599 MAN AS FRANKLIN: I was on the whole much pleas'd, 1654 01:27:47,763 --> 01:27:51,273 and from what I then saw, have conceiv'd a higher Opinion 1655 01:27:51,433 --> 01:27:54,103 of the natural Capacities of the black Race, 1656 01:27:54,270 --> 01:27:57,400 than I had ever before entertained. 1657 01:27:57,564 --> 01:28:01,904 Their Apprehension seems as quick, their Memory as strong, 1658 01:28:02,069 --> 01:28:04,199 and their Docility in every Respect 1659 01:28:04,363 --> 01:28:07,283 equal to that of white Children. 1660 01:28:09,076 --> 01:28:12,826 You will wonder perhaps that I should ever doubt it, 1661 01:28:12,997 --> 01:28:16,787 and I will not undertake to justify all my Prejudices, 1662 01:28:16,959 --> 01:28:18,629 nor to account for them. 1663 01:28:20,045 --> 01:28:23,045 COHN: I think a major turning point in Franklin's life 1664 01:28:23,215 --> 01:28:27,885 was when he visited that classroom. 1665 01:28:28,053 --> 01:28:31,973 He did not like Black people when he was a young man. 1666 01:28:32,141 --> 01:28:33,391 There's no way of getting around that. 1667 01:28:33,559 --> 01:28:37,899 It's very distasteful to say, but it's true. 1668 01:28:38,063 --> 01:28:43,653 He had once written that the hardest thing for a man to do 1669 01:28:43,819 --> 01:28:49,369 is to change long-standing prejudices of belief. 1670 01:28:49,533 --> 01:28:54,203 But to succeed in doing it is a test of one's humanity. 1671 01:28:59,293 --> 01:29:05,763 ♪ 1672 01:29:05,924 --> 01:29:08,594 MAN AS FRANKLIN: If an Indian injures me, does it follow 1673 01:29:08,761 --> 01:29:13,471 that I may revenge that injury on all Indians? 1674 01:29:13,640 --> 01:29:17,270 These poor People have been always our Friends. 1675 01:29:17,436 --> 01:29:20,146 Their Fathers received ours, when Strangers here, 1676 01:29:20,314 --> 01:29:23,234 with Kindness and Hospitality. 1677 01:29:23,400 --> 01:29:26,150 Behold the Return we have made them! 1678 01:29:27,654 --> 01:29:28,864 [BIRD CRIES] NARRATOR: Native Americans 1679 01:29:29,031 --> 01:29:30,741 had been completely left out 1680 01:29:30,908 --> 01:29:34,288 of the treaty negotiations between France and Britain 1681 01:29:34,453 --> 01:29:36,963 that ended the Seven Years' War. 1682 01:29:37,122 --> 01:29:40,962 As white settlements continued to push onto their homelands, 1683 01:29:41,126 --> 01:29:44,586 Indians from the Great Lakes to Western Pennsylvania 1684 01:29:44,755 --> 01:29:46,295 fought back. 1685 01:29:46,465 --> 01:29:51,295 On December 14, 1763, 50 frontiersmen 1686 01:29:51,470 --> 01:29:54,220 from the town of Paxton, Pennsylvania 1687 01:29:54,390 --> 01:29:57,310 swarmed into the small village of Conestoga 1688 01:29:57,476 --> 01:29:59,436 and slaughtered the 6 unarmed 1689 01:29:59,603 --> 01:30:02,903 Susquehannock Indians they found there. 1690 01:30:03,065 --> 01:30:06,605 The mob moved on to Lancaster, where they murdered 14 more 1691 01:30:06,777 --> 01:30:10,317 defenseless men, women, and children. 1692 01:30:11,782 --> 01:30:14,452 Though the Susquehannocks were known to be friendly, 1693 01:30:14,618 --> 01:30:18,658 the so-called Paxton Boys had killed them anyway. 1694 01:30:18,831 --> 01:30:21,881 Public opinion about the massacre was split-- 1695 01:30:22,042 --> 01:30:25,092 between the Quakers, guided by William Penn's advice 1696 01:30:25,254 --> 01:30:27,884 to be friends of the Indians, 1697 01:30:28,048 --> 01:30:29,588 and the newer immigrants, mostly 1698 01:30:29,758 --> 01:30:32,428 Scots-Irish and Germans from the backcountry, 1699 01:30:32,594 --> 01:30:35,104 who accused the Quaker-led assembly 1700 01:30:35,264 --> 01:30:38,234 of coddling native peoples. 1701 01:30:38,392 --> 01:30:40,892 Benjamin Franklin called the perpetrators 1702 01:30:41,061 --> 01:30:42,481 "barbarous Men" 1703 01:30:42,646 --> 01:30:44,766 who had brought "eternal disgrace" 1704 01:30:44,940 --> 01:30:47,070 to their race and religion. 1705 01:30:48,735 --> 01:30:51,315 The Paxton Boys then marched on Philadelphia, 1706 01:30:51,488 --> 01:30:55,988 where more than 100 Indians had been brought for their safety. 1707 01:30:56,160 --> 01:30:59,160 Franklin helped raise a militia to stop them 1708 01:30:59,329 --> 01:31:02,499 and negotiated an end to the crisis. 1709 01:31:02,666 --> 01:31:05,746 But his outspokenness created a backlash, 1710 01:31:05,919 --> 01:31:08,799 especially among the settlers of the backcountry, 1711 01:31:08,964 --> 01:31:11,974 which the Penn family exploited. 1712 01:31:12,134 --> 01:31:15,804 They slandered Franklin's son William as illegitimate, 1713 01:31:15,971 --> 01:31:18,141 falsely claiming that his birth mother 1714 01:31:18,307 --> 01:31:20,677 had starved to death, and that Benjamin 1715 01:31:20,851 --> 01:31:24,521 had hidden her body in an unmarked grave. 1716 01:31:26,440 --> 01:31:27,190 In all the controversy, 1717 01:31:27,357 --> 01:31:29,647 Franklin lost his Assembly seat. 1718 01:31:29,818 --> 01:31:32,778 But the legislature now adopted his position 1719 01:31:32,946 --> 01:31:35,946 that Pennsylvania should be a Crown colony 1720 01:31:36,116 --> 01:31:40,366 and reappointed him as their agent in London. 1721 01:31:40,537 --> 01:31:43,617 After only two years in Philadelphia, 1722 01:31:43,790 --> 01:31:46,500 Franklin was going back to England. 1723 01:31:47,961 --> 01:31:50,801 Deborah had made it clear she intended to stay; 1724 01:31:50,964 --> 01:31:54,594 they were building a new home just off Market Street. 1725 01:31:54,760 --> 01:31:58,140 He promised he wouldn't be gone long. 1726 01:32:00,557 --> 01:32:05,647 ♪ 1727 01:32:05,812 --> 01:32:07,312 WOOD: Coming out of the Seven Years' War, 1728 01:32:07,481 --> 01:32:10,861 Britain is on top of the world. 1729 01:32:11,026 --> 01:32:12,646 They had acquired a huge amount of territory, 1730 01:32:12,819 --> 01:32:16,279 all the territory up to the Mississippi River. 1731 01:32:16,448 --> 01:32:17,908 It was expensive to maintain 1732 01:32:18,075 --> 01:32:19,655 and, so, you needed to tax it. 1733 01:32:19,826 --> 01:32:21,746 Franklin certainly went along with it. 1734 01:32:21,912 --> 01:32:24,212 And he said, "Well, empires cost money." 1735 01:32:24,373 --> 01:32:26,213 And, much to his chagrin, 1736 01:32:26,375 --> 01:32:28,625 he found himself going the wrong way, 1737 01:32:28,794 --> 01:32:31,214 out of touch with American public opinion. 1738 01:32:31,380 --> 01:32:33,380 [MEN SHOUT INDISTINCTLY] NARRATOR: The recent war with France 1739 01:32:33,549 --> 01:32:38,429 had expanded England's empire, but left its treasury depleted. 1740 01:32:39,555 --> 01:32:41,635 In the spring of 1765, 1741 01:32:41,807 --> 01:32:44,057 the king's ministers and Parliament 1742 01:32:44,226 --> 01:32:46,476 came up with a new way to raise more money 1743 01:32:46,645 --> 01:32:48,725 from the American colonies. 1744 01:32:51,108 --> 01:32:56,198 Now all legal documents, newspapers, books, almanacs, 1745 01:32:56,363 --> 01:33:01,243 even decks of playing cards, would need official stamps, 1746 01:33:01,410 --> 01:33:03,790 purchased from the government. 1747 01:33:03,954 --> 01:33:06,544 In Virginia, Patrick Henry denounced the act 1748 01:33:06,707 --> 01:33:10,707 as taxation without representation. 1749 01:33:10,877 --> 01:33:14,297 Riots broke out in New York; New London, Connecticut; 1750 01:33:14,464 --> 01:33:16,804 Annapolis, Maryland. 1751 01:33:16,967 --> 01:33:20,757 In Boston, a group calling themselves the Sons of Liberty 1752 01:33:20,929 --> 01:33:25,559 hanged and burned the stamp commissioner in effigy. 1753 01:33:25,726 --> 01:33:27,596 Then the mob destroyed the mansion 1754 01:33:27,769 --> 01:33:29,899 of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, 1755 01:33:30,063 --> 01:33:34,443 who had worked with Franklin back in 1754 1756 01:33:34,610 --> 01:33:37,700 to propose the Albany Plan of Union. 1757 01:33:37,863 --> 01:33:41,033 The leaders of the protests had appropriated the motto 1758 01:33:41,199 --> 01:33:43,119 Franklin had used at the time 1759 01:33:43,285 --> 01:33:48,825 to encourage the colonies to act TOGETHER: "join or die." 1760 01:33:48,999 --> 01:33:52,339 Franklin didn't like the Stamp Act either, 1761 01:33:52,502 --> 01:33:55,212 but from London advised Pennsylvanians 1762 01:33:55,380 --> 01:33:57,630 against over-reacting. 1763 01:34:00,218 --> 01:34:03,968 His political enemies back home now spread false rumors 1764 01:34:04,139 --> 01:34:06,429 that he helped write the Stamp Act 1765 01:34:06,600 --> 01:34:11,730 and had been bribed by promises of a higher royal appointment. 1766 01:34:11,897 --> 01:34:13,647 When a mob threatened to attack 1767 01:34:13,815 --> 01:34:16,275 the Franklin home in Philadelphia, 1768 01:34:16,443 --> 01:34:18,743 Deborah wouldn't budge. 1769 01:34:20,364 --> 01:34:21,414 WOMAN AS DEBORAH FRANKLIN: I said when I was advised 1770 01:34:21,573 --> 01:34:23,583 to remove that I was very sure 1771 01:34:23,742 --> 01:34:26,292 you had done nothing to hurt anybody, 1772 01:34:26,453 --> 01:34:30,753 and I had not given any offense to any person at all. 1773 01:34:30,916 --> 01:34:35,706 I sent to ask my brother to come and bring his gun. 1774 01:34:35,879 --> 01:34:38,379 If any one came to disturb me, 1775 01:34:38,548 --> 01:34:41,008 I would show a proper resentment. 1776 01:34:42,636 --> 01:34:45,846 NARRATOR: Shocked at the reports of mob violence in the colonies, 1777 01:34:46,014 --> 01:34:48,314 Franklin wrote William that unless 1778 01:34:48,475 --> 01:34:50,345 some compromise could be found 1779 01:34:50,519 --> 01:34:52,019 to ease the tensions, 1780 01:34:52,187 --> 01:34:54,397 events were "laying the Foundation 1781 01:34:54,564 --> 01:34:57,784 of a future total Separation." 1782 01:34:57,943 --> 01:35:00,493 He flooded London newspapers with letters 1783 01:35:00,654 --> 01:35:03,664 arguing that the Stamp Act was unfair, 1784 01:35:03,824 --> 01:35:05,954 that the recent riots did not represent 1785 01:35:06,118 --> 01:35:09,828 the attitude of a majority of the colonists. 1786 01:35:09,996 --> 01:35:13,416 He circulated a political cartoon illustrating that, 1787 01:35:13,583 --> 01:35:15,503 if the crisis escalated, 1788 01:35:15,669 --> 01:35:19,169 the Empire would be dismembered. 1789 01:35:19,339 --> 01:35:25,009 On February 13, 1766, Franklin appeared before Parliament, 1790 01:35:25,178 --> 01:35:29,558 patiently answering questions posed by its members. 1791 01:35:29,725 --> 01:35:31,725 Could an army make the colonists comply, 1792 01:35:31,893 --> 01:35:34,603 he was asked. [MAN SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY] 1793 01:35:34,771 --> 01:35:35,651 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Suppose a military force 1794 01:35:35,814 --> 01:35:38,154 is sent into America. 1795 01:35:38,316 --> 01:35:40,436 What are they then to do? 1796 01:35:40,610 --> 01:35:42,490 They cannot force a man to take stamps 1797 01:35:42,654 --> 01:35:45,574 who chooses to do without them. 1798 01:35:45,741 --> 01:35:48,241 They will not find a rebellion; 1799 01:35:48,410 --> 01:35:50,580 they may indeed make one. 1800 01:35:52,330 --> 01:35:54,880 NARRATOR: The Stamp Act was repealed. 1801 01:35:55,041 --> 01:35:57,881 But the Privy Council, the King's top advisors, 1802 01:35:58,044 --> 01:36:00,844 had refused to act on Franklin's petition 1803 01:36:01,006 --> 01:36:04,836 to make Pennsylvania a Crown colony. 1804 01:36:05,010 --> 01:36:08,890 Franklin decided to remain in England anyway. 1805 01:36:09,055 --> 01:36:11,845 There were hints that he might be in line for a high post 1806 01:36:12,017 --> 01:36:16,687 in the ministry responsible for the American provinces. 1807 01:36:16,855 --> 01:36:18,975 And he used his connections to begin lobbying 1808 01:36:19,149 --> 01:36:22,649 on behalf of William and a group of speculators 1809 01:36:22,819 --> 01:36:25,989 to acquire millions of acres of Indian land 1810 01:36:26,156 --> 01:36:28,236 along the Ohio River, 1811 01:36:28,408 --> 01:36:33,158 then sell it in small parcels to settlers for an immense profit-- 1812 01:36:33,330 --> 01:36:35,330 and create a new colony. 1813 01:36:35,499 --> 01:36:37,249 [HORSE WHINNIES] 1814 01:36:37,417 --> 01:36:40,417 Meanwhile, Franklin put his scientific skills 1815 01:36:40,587 --> 01:36:42,627 to work for the empire. 1816 01:36:42,798 --> 01:36:44,468 He helped install lightning rods 1817 01:36:44,633 --> 01:36:46,933 on St. Paul's Cathedral; 1818 01:36:47,093 --> 01:36:49,553 came up with a hot-water piping system 1819 01:36:49,721 --> 01:36:52,561 to keep the House of Commons warm; 1820 01:36:52,724 --> 01:36:54,524 and, working with a cousin, 1821 01:36:54,684 --> 01:36:56,734 a whaling captain from Nantucket, 1822 01:36:56,895 --> 01:36:58,855 he created the first chart 1823 01:36:59,022 --> 01:37:01,612 of what was called the Gulph Stream, 1824 01:37:01,775 --> 01:37:05,945 which helped explain why ships going from London to America 1825 01:37:06,112 --> 01:37:09,282 took longer than those going the other way. 1826 01:37:12,536 --> 01:37:13,446 WOMAN AS DEBORAH FRANKLIN: Yesterday I had the pleasure 1827 01:37:13,620 --> 01:37:15,580 to receive your letter. 1828 01:37:15,747 --> 01:37:17,617 I had not heard one word about you 1829 01:37:17,791 --> 01:37:20,341 since the latter end of August, 1830 01:37:20,502 --> 01:37:23,672 which was near 5 months, 1831 01:37:23,839 --> 01:37:26,839 but I shall not dwell on that at this time. 1832 01:37:29,261 --> 01:37:30,931 NARRATOR: Back in Philadelphia, as she had 1833 01:37:31,096 --> 01:37:34,216 always done during Benjamin's long absences, 1834 01:37:34,391 --> 01:37:37,771 Deborah Franklin took care of everything. 1835 01:37:37,936 --> 01:37:41,016 She managed her husband's many business enterprises 1836 01:37:41,189 --> 01:37:43,609 and supervised the myriad details 1837 01:37:43,775 --> 01:37:46,145 of the new home they were building. 1838 01:37:46,319 --> 01:37:49,819 All the while, she waited for his promised return. 1839 01:37:52,033 --> 01:37:55,703 In the fall of 1767, their daughter Sally married 1840 01:37:55,871 --> 01:37:58,961 a Philadelphia merchant, Richard Bache, 1841 01:37:59,124 --> 01:38:03,174 and in 1769 she gave birth to a baby boy, 1842 01:38:03,336 --> 01:38:06,546 whom she named after his grandfather. 1843 01:38:06,715 --> 01:38:08,965 They called him Benny. 1844 01:38:11,136 --> 01:38:13,676 That same year, Deborah suffered a stroke 1845 01:38:13,847 --> 01:38:17,017 that left her incapacitated for months. 1846 01:38:17,183 --> 01:38:19,603 As she recovered, she wrote her husband 1847 01:38:19,769 --> 01:38:21,859 that her worries about him 1848 01:38:22,022 --> 01:38:24,982 had been at least partly responsible. 1849 01:38:26,985 --> 01:38:29,985 WOMAN AS DEBORAH FRANKLIN: I often tell my friends I was not sick, 1850 01:38:30,155 --> 01:38:32,905 it was only more than I could bear. 1851 01:38:33,074 --> 01:38:37,584 And so I fell down and could not get up again. 1852 01:38:37,746 --> 01:38:39,536 But I had taken up a resolution 1853 01:38:39,706 --> 01:38:41,576 never to make any complaint to you 1854 01:38:41,750 --> 01:38:44,090 or give you any disquiet. 1855 01:38:44,252 --> 01:38:48,382 ♪ 1856 01:38:48,548 --> 01:38:50,678 NARRATOR: Even though the Stamp Act had been repealed, 1857 01:38:50,842 --> 01:38:52,552 the colonies were still expected 1858 01:38:52,719 --> 01:38:55,599 to help pay off war debts; 1859 01:38:55,764 --> 01:38:58,024 Parliament now imposed import duties 1860 01:38:58,183 --> 01:39:03,273 on glass and china, paint and tea. 1861 01:39:03,438 --> 01:39:05,978 When the Massachusetts Assembly passed a resolution 1862 01:39:06,149 --> 01:39:08,359 objecting to the new measures-- 1863 01:39:08,526 --> 01:39:12,486 and called on other colonial legislatures to do the same-- 1864 01:39:12,656 --> 01:39:18,076 Britain sent 15 warships and 1,000 troops to Boston. 1865 01:39:18,244 --> 01:39:20,414 Their presence, Franklin wrote from London, 1866 01:39:20,580 --> 01:39:23,670 "seems like setting up a blacksmith's forge 1867 01:39:23,833 --> 01:39:26,423 in a magazine of gunpowder." 1868 01:39:26,586 --> 01:39:29,916 He redoubled his efforts to find a compromise between 1869 01:39:30,090 --> 01:39:34,300 the hard-liners on both sides of the Atlantic. 1870 01:39:34,469 --> 01:39:38,519 BROWN: He sees the issue as one of respect. 1871 01:39:38,682 --> 01:39:43,852 What holds an empire together is a sense of common feeling. 1872 01:39:44,020 --> 01:39:46,060 Right? Of common economic interest, 1873 01:39:46,231 --> 01:39:50,071 of interdependence, of identification. 1874 01:39:50,235 --> 01:39:52,235 The power doesn't reside in the capacity 1875 01:39:52,404 --> 01:39:55,124 to make people do what you want them to do. 1876 01:39:58,201 --> 01:39:59,701 ISAACSON: Benjamin Franklin keeps trying to hold 1877 01:39:59,869 --> 01:40:01,789 the British Empire together. 1878 01:40:01,955 --> 01:40:04,205 Trying to figure out some middle ground 1879 01:40:04,374 --> 01:40:07,134 in which the Colonies get to control themselves 1880 01:40:07,293 --> 01:40:10,213 through their own assemblies and legislatures, 1881 01:40:10,380 --> 01:40:13,380 but still loyal to the Crown of England. 1882 01:40:13,550 --> 01:40:16,090 And that was Franklin's hope, that somehow 1883 01:40:16,261 --> 01:40:17,851 he could keep together what he called 1884 01:40:18,013 --> 01:40:21,103 this "fragile, noble vase." 1885 01:40:21,266 --> 01:40:23,226 'Cause he said, "Once it gets broken, 1886 01:40:23,393 --> 01:40:25,943 you're not going to put it back together." 1887 01:40:26,104 --> 01:40:26,774 MAN AS FRANKLIN: Being born and bred 1888 01:40:26,938 --> 01:40:28,898 in one of the countries, 1889 01:40:29,065 --> 01:40:31,025 and having lived long in the other, 1890 01:40:31,192 --> 01:40:34,242 I wish all prosperity to both. 1891 01:40:34,404 --> 01:40:36,414 But I do not find that I have gained 1892 01:40:36,573 --> 01:40:38,913 any point in either country, 1893 01:40:39,075 --> 01:40:43,865 except that of rendering myself suspected by my impartiality: 1894 01:40:44,039 --> 01:40:46,499 in England of being too much an American, 1895 01:40:46,666 --> 01:40:50,956 and in America of being too much an Englishman. 1896 01:40:52,630 --> 01:40:55,180 NARRATOR: As the political crisis continued to build, 1897 01:40:55,341 --> 01:40:59,891 Franklin spent part of the summer of 1771 1898 01:41:00,055 --> 01:41:02,675 at a friend's estate southwest of London. 1899 01:41:04,350 --> 01:41:06,730 He was 65 years old and decided to make 1900 01:41:06,895 --> 01:41:09,105 an accounting of his life, 1901 01:41:09,272 --> 01:41:13,112 something, he wrote, "my posterity may like to know." 1902 01:41:14,486 --> 01:41:17,196 It was filled with stories of how, in his words, 1903 01:41:17,363 --> 01:41:20,033 "I emerged from the poverty and obscurity 1904 01:41:20,200 --> 01:41:22,290 "in which I was born and bred, 1905 01:41:22,452 --> 01:41:25,502 "to a state of affluence and some degree 1906 01:41:25,663 --> 01:41:28,003 of reputation in the world." 1907 01:41:29,501 --> 01:41:31,341 It was the beginning of what would become 1908 01:41:31,503 --> 01:41:33,923 one of the most-read and influential 1909 01:41:34,089 --> 01:41:37,379 autobiographies ever written. 1910 01:41:37,550 --> 01:41:40,390 ISAACSON: He begins with two very interesting words: 1911 01:41:40,553 --> 01:41:43,313 "Dear Son." 1912 01:41:43,473 --> 01:41:45,273 And he's addressing it to William, or at least 1913 01:41:45,433 --> 01:41:47,443 pretending he's addressing it to William. 1914 01:41:47,602 --> 01:41:51,232 'Cause he's trying to say, "Remember where we come from. 1915 01:41:51,397 --> 01:41:53,107 "We're working class and middle class. 1916 01:41:53,274 --> 01:41:56,904 We're not trying to be aristocratic." 1917 01:41:57,070 --> 01:41:59,700 NARRATOR: But he soon put his memoir aside; 1918 01:41:59,864 --> 01:42:03,584 world affairs were overtaking both Benjamin Franklin-- 1919 01:42:03,743 --> 01:42:08,713 now the agent representing several colonies in England-- 1920 01:42:08,873 --> 01:42:13,043 and William Franklin--the royal governor of New Jersey. 1921 01:42:14,671 --> 01:42:15,921 MAN AS FRANKLIN: It is very uncertain what Turn 1922 01:42:16,089 --> 01:42:18,679 American Affairs will take here. 1923 01:42:18,842 --> 01:42:23,602 The Friends of both Countries wish a reconciliation; 1924 01:42:23,763 --> 01:42:27,483 the Enemies of either, endeavor to widen the Breach; 1925 01:42:27,642 --> 01:42:29,482 God knows how it will end. 1926 01:42:29,644 --> 01:42:35,864 ♪ 1927 01:42:36,025 --> 01:42:37,105 He was never thinking, 1928 01:42:37,277 --> 01:42:39,527 we need to be independent. 1929 01:42:39,696 --> 01:42:42,156 He was always thinking, if we can just 1930 01:42:42,323 --> 01:42:44,333 work out a few fundamental problems 1931 01:42:44,492 --> 01:42:46,872 between us and the British Ministry, 1932 01:42:47,036 --> 01:42:48,536 that things are going to be fine. 1933 01:42:48,705 --> 01:42:51,785 He probably could have been won over to the British side 1934 01:42:51,958 --> 01:42:53,208 as a Loyalist, like his son, 1935 01:42:53,376 --> 01:42:56,416 if things had gone slightly differently. 1936 01:42:56,588 --> 01:42:59,468 NARRATOR: Tensions between England and the colonies worsened, 1937 01:42:59,632 --> 01:43:02,592 especially after British soldiers fired on 1938 01:43:02,760 --> 01:43:05,310 a Massachusetts mob in 1770, 1939 01:43:05,471 --> 01:43:09,481 killing 5 Americans-- the Boston Massacre. 1940 01:43:10,894 --> 01:43:14,774 Franklin's position was becoming increasingly untenable. 1941 01:43:14,939 --> 01:43:17,689 He was trying to represent the interests of Massachusetts, 1942 01:43:17,859 --> 01:43:22,609 New Jersey, and Georgia, in addition to Pennsylvania. 1943 01:43:22,780 --> 01:43:27,240 In 1772, Franklin was shown confidential letters 1944 01:43:27,410 --> 01:43:30,660 written by his old ally Thomas Hutchinson, 1945 01:43:30,830 --> 01:43:33,330 now the governor of Massachusetts. 1946 01:43:33,499 --> 01:43:36,129 The only way to quell colonial unrest, 1947 01:43:36,294 --> 01:43:38,594 Hutchinson had advised London, 1948 01:43:38,755 --> 01:43:42,125 was through harsher measures, including, he suggested, 1949 01:43:42,300 --> 01:43:45,430 "an abridgment of liberties." 1950 01:43:45,595 --> 01:43:48,465 Franklin surreptitiously sent copies of the letters 1951 01:43:48,640 --> 01:43:51,980 to the leaders of the Massachusetts Assembly. 1952 01:43:52,143 --> 01:43:54,443 He hoped that the firebrands in Boston 1953 01:43:54,604 --> 01:43:57,694 would turn their anger from Parliament to Hutchinson, 1954 01:43:57,857 --> 01:44:00,897 blaming his bad advice for the crisis with Britain, 1955 01:44:01,069 --> 01:44:06,029 making room for cooler heads to broker a reconciliation. 1956 01:44:06,199 --> 01:44:09,869 Instead, it only inflamed passions. 1957 01:44:11,371 --> 01:44:13,581 The letters were leaked to newspapers, 1958 01:44:13,748 --> 01:44:18,038 sparking an uproar throughout the colonies. 1959 01:44:18,211 --> 01:44:19,671 The Massachusetts Assembly drafted 1960 01:44:19,837 --> 01:44:21,967 an angry petition to the king, 1961 01:44:22,131 --> 01:44:25,431 demanding that Hutchinson be removed. 1962 01:44:25,593 --> 01:44:28,643 As the Assembly's agent, Franklin would have to be 1963 01:44:28,805 --> 01:44:30,765 the one to present that petition 1964 01:44:30,932 --> 01:44:33,272 before the King's Privy Council. 1965 01:44:33,434 --> 01:44:36,444 To make matters worse, Franklin had felt 1966 01:44:36,604 --> 01:44:39,194 obligated to admit that he was the one 1967 01:44:39,357 --> 01:44:43,437 who had originally shared Hutchinson's letters. 1968 01:44:43,611 --> 01:44:46,071 And, so, Franklin was seen as this person who 1969 01:44:46,239 --> 01:44:49,119 stole other people's mail, 1970 01:44:49,284 --> 01:44:51,954 which was quite an egregious offense 1971 01:44:52,120 --> 01:44:54,370 for someone who was a postmaster. 1972 01:44:56,040 --> 01:44:58,540 NARRATOR: Just a few days before Franklin was scheduled 1973 01:44:58,710 --> 01:45:03,460 to appear before the Privy Council in January of 1774, 1974 01:45:03,631 --> 01:45:07,391 news arrived from America that changed everything. 1975 01:45:08,845 --> 01:45:11,215 The Sons of Liberty, dressed as Indians, 1976 01:45:11,389 --> 01:45:14,349 had boarded 3 ships in Boston Harbor 1977 01:45:14,517 --> 01:45:18,807 and dumped 46 tons-- 342 crates-- 1978 01:45:18,980 --> 01:45:21,400 of English tea into the sea. 1979 01:45:22,692 --> 01:45:24,822 Officials in London were still seething 1980 01:45:24,986 --> 01:45:26,606 at that act of defiance 1981 01:45:26,779 --> 01:45:30,329 when, on January 29, Franklin entered 1982 01:45:30,491 --> 01:45:33,791 a meeting room at Whitehall called the Cockpit, 1983 01:45:33,953 --> 01:45:38,423 where Henry VIII had once staged cockfights. 1984 01:45:38,583 --> 01:45:41,343 To the Privy Council, and the crowd of spectators 1985 01:45:41,502 --> 01:45:44,342 gathered there, Franklin was now the face 1986 01:45:44,505 --> 01:45:47,255 of an insolent American uprising, 1987 01:45:47,425 --> 01:45:50,465 although Franklin considered the Boston Tea Party 1988 01:45:50,636 --> 01:45:53,716 an "act of violent injustice on our part"-- 1989 01:45:53,890 --> 01:45:58,350 the very kind of provocation he had always counseled against. 1990 01:46:00,396 --> 01:46:02,726 Alexander Wedderburn, the sharp-tongued 1991 01:46:02,899 --> 01:46:05,399 and politically ambitious solicitor general, 1992 01:46:05,568 --> 01:46:09,028 who considered the recent events in Boston treasonous, 1993 01:46:09,197 --> 01:46:11,487 made clear from the start that the hearing 1994 01:46:11,657 --> 01:46:14,737 would be an attack on Franklin's character. 1995 01:46:16,120 --> 01:46:17,870 MAN AS WEDDERBURN: Your Lordships will not wonder 1996 01:46:18,039 --> 01:46:21,749 that I consider Dr. Franklin not so much in the light of an agent 1997 01:46:21,918 --> 01:46:25,838 for the Assembly's purpose, as in that of a first mover 1998 01:46:26,005 --> 01:46:29,545 and prime conductor of it for his own as the actor... 1999 01:46:29,717 --> 01:46:31,717 NARRATOR: Wedderburn spoke for a solid hour, 2000 01:46:31,886 --> 01:46:35,346 sometimes pounding on the table as he berated Franklin 2001 01:46:35,515 --> 01:46:39,095 with one denunciation after another, 2002 01:46:39,268 --> 01:46:41,848 sometimes using sarcasm that prompted 2003 01:46:42,021 --> 01:46:44,401 the nobles and high officials in the audience 2004 01:46:44,565 --> 01:46:48,485 to snicker and jeer as they urged him on. 2005 01:46:48,653 --> 01:46:51,453 Throughout it all, Franklin stood stock still, 2006 01:46:51,614 --> 01:46:53,744 refusing to show any emotion. 2007 01:46:53,908 --> 01:46:55,788 MAN AS WEDDERBURN: ...answerable to the law. 2008 01:46:55,952 --> 01:46:58,002 The good men of Boston have lately held their meetings... 2009 01:46:58,162 --> 01:47:00,252 ISAACSON: They're accusing Benjamin Franklin of 2010 01:47:00,415 --> 01:47:04,085 fomenting this Revolution 2011 01:47:04,252 --> 01:47:06,382 and he just stays there, silent, 2012 01:47:06,546 --> 01:47:09,586 and treats them with silent contempt. 2013 01:47:09,757 --> 01:47:12,467 NARRATOR: When Wedderburn finally finished his diatribe, 2014 01:47:12,635 --> 01:47:15,095 he asked if Franklin had a statement to make 2015 01:47:15,263 --> 01:47:17,473 or would take questions. 2016 01:47:17,640 --> 01:47:19,770 Franklin refused. 2017 01:47:19,934 --> 01:47:21,734 The hearing was over. 2018 01:47:21,894 --> 01:47:29,034 ♪ 2019 01:47:29,193 --> 01:47:32,323 London newspapers now referred to Franklin as 2020 01:47:32,488 --> 01:47:36,198 "old Doubleface," a "grand incendiary," 2021 01:47:36,367 --> 01:47:39,697 and a "gray-headed traitor." 2022 01:47:39,871 --> 01:47:43,421 Americans, the essayist Samuel Johnson wrote, 2023 01:47:43,583 --> 01:47:46,713 "have been taught by some master of mischief 2024 01:47:46,878 --> 01:47:51,418 how to put in motion the engine of political electricity." 2025 01:47:53,885 --> 01:47:56,715 Two days after his humiliation in the Cockpit, 2026 01:47:56,888 --> 01:47:59,678 Franklin was informed that he had been dismissed 2027 01:47:59,849 --> 01:48:03,849 as deputy postmaster for North America. 2028 01:48:04,020 --> 01:48:07,860 Any hopes he had for a higher post also evaporated, 2029 01:48:08,024 --> 01:48:13,284 as did his dreams for the vast land scheme along the Ohio. 2030 01:48:13,446 --> 01:48:16,366 Franklin walked into the Cockpit an Englishman 2031 01:48:16,532 --> 01:48:18,832 and walked out of the Cockpit an American 2032 01:48:18,993 --> 01:48:21,873 because it became very clear to Franklin 2033 01:48:22,038 --> 01:48:25,458 that he, as an American, would never receive 2034 01:48:25,625 --> 01:48:28,915 the respect that he believed he was due. 2035 01:48:29,086 --> 01:48:31,916 At that point, Franklin realized there is no future 2036 01:48:32,089 --> 01:48:36,299 for me or for people like me within the British Empire. 2037 01:48:39,805 --> 01:48:42,595 NARRATOR: On December 14, 1774, 2038 01:48:42,767 --> 01:48:45,477 Deborah Franklin had another stroke, 2039 01:48:45,645 --> 01:48:49,145 more massive than the one 5 years earlier. 2040 01:48:49,315 --> 01:48:51,315 She lingered on for a few days, 2041 01:48:51,484 --> 01:48:53,574 then died on the 19th, 2042 01:48:53,736 --> 01:48:55,696 still waiting for her husband, 2043 01:48:55,863 --> 01:48:59,663 who had been away for 15 of the last 17 years, 2044 01:48:59,825 --> 01:49:02,995 to return to her and the new house on Market Street 2045 01:49:03,162 --> 01:49:05,292 he had never seen. 2046 01:49:06,541 --> 01:49:08,421 SCHIFF: He's away from Deborah for the last 10 years of her life. 2047 01:49:08,584 --> 01:49:10,094 He knows she's ill. 2048 01:49:10,253 --> 01:49:12,513 And he doesn't come back. 2049 01:49:12,672 --> 01:49:14,172 If Franklin gets failing grades in any subject, 2050 01:49:14,340 --> 01:49:17,180 it's the family relations, both in terms of the marriage 2051 01:49:17,343 --> 01:49:19,303 and in terms of his son. 2052 01:49:22,098 --> 01:49:26,638 MAN AS WILLIAM FRANKLIN: Philadelphia, December 24, 1774. 2053 01:49:26,811 --> 01:49:30,861 Honored Father, I came here on Thursday last 2054 01:49:31,023 --> 01:49:34,693 to attend the Funeral of my poor old Mother. 2055 01:49:34,860 --> 01:49:36,780 I heartily wish you had happened to have 2056 01:49:36,946 --> 01:49:38,486 come over in the Fall, 2057 01:49:38,656 --> 01:49:40,616 as I think her Disappointment in that respect 2058 01:49:40,783 --> 01:49:43,703 preyed a good deal on her Spirits. 2059 01:49:45,871 --> 01:49:47,831 I cannot help being concerned to find that 2060 01:49:47,999 --> 01:49:51,539 you postpone your Return to your Family. 2061 01:49:52,920 --> 01:49:55,130 You have had by this Time pretty strong Proofs 2062 01:49:55,298 --> 01:49:58,378 that you are look'd upon with an evil Eye in that Country. 2063 01:49:58,551 --> 01:50:00,391 You had certainly better return 2064 01:50:00,553 --> 01:50:02,973 to a Country where the People revere you, 2065 01:50:03,139 --> 01:50:07,439 and are inclined to pay a Deference to your Opinions. 2066 01:50:07,602 --> 01:50:13,322 I am ever, Honored Sir, Your dutiful Son William. 2067 01:50:15,192 --> 01:50:17,782 NARRATOR: For Franklin, his breach with England 2068 01:50:17,945 --> 01:50:19,445 was complete. 2069 01:50:19,614 --> 01:50:22,374 Now a political rift seemed to be growing 2070 01:50:22,533 --> 01:50:24,793 between him and his son. 2071 01:50:27,204 --> 01:50:31,504 In the coming year, a revolution would begin, 2072 01:50:31,667 --> 01:50:34,377 unlikely alliances would be forged, 2073 01:50:34,545 --> 01:50:36,705 loyalties would be tested, 2074 01:50:36,881 --> 01:50:40,011 families would be torn apart, 2075 01:50:40,176 --> 01:50:44,926 and Benjamin Franklin would be in the middle of it all. 2076 01:50:45,097 --> 01:50:53,937 ♪ 2077 01:50:54,106 --> 01:51:04,106 ♪