Definition
Benjamin Franklin was a Boston-born printer who made Philadelphia his home and became famous in Europe for his experiments with electricity. At the Albany Congress in 1754 he drew up the Albany Plan of Union, a joint colonial government to raise troops and taxes for defense, and he printed the Join, or Die cartoon, but no colony adopted the plan. As an agent for Pennsylvania in London, he testified before the House of Commons in February 1766 against the Stamp Act. During the Revolution he served on the committee of five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, then negotiated the alliance with France in 1778 and, with John Adams and John Jay, the Treaty of Paris of 1783.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The AP framework names Franklin as an example of the colonial leaders who energized the movement for independence, and his career runs through the whole crisis. His Albany Plan failed because each colonial assembly refused to give up its power to tax, but it set a precedent for the intercolonial congresses of 1765 and 1774, and his 1766 testimony that American feeling toward Britain had "very much altered" added to the pressure for repeal of the Stamp Act. His experiments made him a model of the Enlightenment's trust in observation and reason, and his fame in France helped him win the alliance of 1778. Questions use the Albany Plan, the Join, or Die cartoon, and his Stamp Act testimony as sources on colonial unity and resistance.
In the sources
“The assemblies did not adopt it, as they all thought there was too much prerogative in it; and in England it was judg'd to have too much of the democratic.”
Connections
- Seven Years' War: the Albany Plan was meant to unite the colonies for defense against France
- Stamp Act: he testified against it before the House of Commons in 1766
- Great Awakening: he printed George Whitefield's sermons and journals and tested the reach of his voice
- Declaration of Independence: he served on the committee of five that drafted it