Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath active as a physicist, philosopher, statesman and inventor who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the first postmaster general.

Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette at age 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the policies of the British Parliament and the Crown. He pioneered and was the first president of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected its president in 1769. He was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, which enabled him to set up the first national communications network.

Franklin was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. He became a hero in North America when, as an agent in London for several colonies, he spearheaded the repeal of the unpopular Stamp Act by the British Parliament. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired as the first U.S. ambassador to France. Franklin used referent power to develop positive Franco–American relations and successfully secured vital French support for the American Revolutionary War. From 1785 to 1788, he served as President of Pennsylvania. From at least as early as 1735 through the following decades, Franklin owned at least seven slaves and ran "for sale" ads for slaves in his newspaper, but by the late 1750s, he had begun arguing against slavery, became an active abolitionist, and promoted the education and integration of African Americans into U.S. society.