A revisionist look at Franklin, focusing on his long struggle
against the power of the Penn family and his evolution into one of
the nation's first revolutionaries. Jennings (Empire of Fortune,
1988, etc.) dismisses much of Franklin's Autobiography as a series
of half-truths designed, like a campaign speech, to present himself
in the best possible light for posterity. Instead, Jennings
suggests that Franklin's struggle against Thomas Penn, which is not
even mentioned in the Autobiography, was central to Franklin's
political development and is crucial in understanding his later
revolutionary career. Founded by William Penn, the Pennsylvania
colony was ruled, when Franklin arrived from Boston in 1723, as a
proprietary colony by the Penn family. After establishing himself
as a successful printer and newspaper publisher, and while making
signficant contributions to the study of electricity and creating
America's first lending library and philosophical society, Franklin
challenged the intractable Penns for political primacy in the
colony: He supported the Quaker politicians in the Pennsylvania
assembly, many of whom he privately despised, in their resistance
to Thomas Penn's bad faith dealings with the local Indians and his
arbitrary, inept rule of the colony, largely from London. Franklin
also emerges as a champion of colonial defense against incursions
by the French and Indian tribes. Franklin became a dedicated
servant of the Crown and was at first very successful representing
colonial interests in London. Ultimately, he became the focus of
royal ire and was denounced on the floor of the Privy Council in an
episode that led to his final break with Britain. As Pennsylvania's
chief statesman, he was instrumental in calling the first meetings
of patriots that led to the formation of the Continental Congress,
and ultimately to the Revolution. A fine portrait of the political
side of "the first American." (Kirkus Reviews)
The Mask and the Man
Franklin's influence on the course of the revolutionary movement is seen in a new light by a distinguished historian of early America.
Benjamin Franklin was a man of genius and enormous ego, smart enough not to flaunt his superiority but to let others proclaim it. To understand him and his role in great events, one must realize the omnipresence of this ego, and the extent to which he mirrored the feelings of other colonial Pennsylvanians. With this in mind, Francis Jennings sets forth some new ideas about Franklin as the "first American." In so doing, he provides a new view of the beginnings of the American Revolution in Franklin's struggle against William Penn. By striving against Penn's feudal lordship (and therefore against King George) Franklin became master of the Pennsylvania assembly. It was in this role that he suggested a meeting of the Continental Congress which, as Jennings notes, flies in the face of historical opinion which suggests that Boston patriots had to drag Pennsylvanians into the revolution. Franklin's autobiography omits discussion of his heroic struggle against Penn and, in so doing, robs history of his true role in the making of the new country. It is through an accurate accounting of what Franklin did, not what he said he did in his autobiography (which Jennings likens to a campaign speech), that we understand the author's use of the term "first American."
Francis Jennings is the author of numerous path-breaking books, including the award-winning The Invasion of America (Norton). He is director emeritus of the Newberry Library's Center for the History of the American Indian. He lives in Chicago.
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