![]() Letters between John and Abigail Adams might have spread some rumors - they didn’t like the way he easily charmed his way into society, where he made close friends with several French women. Cohn, the Editor in Chief of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, told TIME in an email that the allusion “perpetuates a myth that serious historians have tried to kill for years, but it persists – probably because people enjoy thinking of Franklin this way.”Ĭohn, who’s spent three decades looking at every document she could find about Franklin’s time in Paris, says she “can state with authority” that Franklin was no womanizer. In the song, Franklin’s refrain is that “diplomacy happens at night,” forcing him to “stay up late with a succulent breast or a thigh.” But, while the wining-and-dining aspect of Franklin’s time in Paris is well-documented, that’s not the case for the not-so-subtle suggestion that there was seduction involved.Įllen R. One idea implied by the song, however, gets a resounding “no” from historians. As Brands simply puts it, “Franklin was wining and dining Paris elites.” The description of Franklin’s son gets points for accuracy - he was in fact on the “wrong side” of the Revolution, as the song puts it, having landed himself in jail while working with British and their loyalists - and it’s true that Franklin had a tense relationship with John Adams. Franklin’s experiment demonstrated the connection between lightning and electricity.” As for whether they were “putting up streetlights in Gay Paris” during Franklin’s time there, which the song suggests, the first electric street lamps in the city of light wouldn’t show up until decades after Franklin went home. Electrical forces had been recognized for more than a thousand years, and scientists had worked extensively with static electricity. As the Franklin Institute has noted, “Benjamin Franklin did not discover electricity during this experiment - or at all, for that matter. References to “some lightning, a kite, and a fat brass key” do correspond with an experiment Franklin did, though he gets more credit (in the song and in general) than he should for what the experiment uncovered. Franklin spent much of the late 1770s and early 1780s in France, working to secure foreign support for the American revolutionaries. The lyrics, sung from Franklin’s rather cheeky perspective at age 76 (which places the song around the year 1782), touch on some of Franklin’s most famous scientific credits (electricity) and writings ( Poor Richard’s Almanack) while focusing on his diplomatic relationship with the French. In fact, he wrote folksy music of his own and, as mentioned in the song, played the “glass armonica” - the kind of instrument that the folk-leaning indie rock group The Decemberists might like too. Case in point: “Ben Franklin’s Song.” The tune, with lyrics by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and music by the Decemberists, has now been released as the first installment of what Miranda is calling “the Hamildrops.”Īs it turns out, a song is a fitting way to pay tribute to Franklin. London had been rebuilt and reborn, cleansed after the Great Fire and adorned with the architectural marvel of the new St Paul’s.For all the early American history crammed into Hamilton, there’s plenty more to the story that didn’t make it into the show. Rebuilt and rebornįranklin’s 18 months as a teenage printer in the imperial capital were to have a profound effect on him. By bringing France into the war against Britain, Franklin is crucial in securing American independence.ġ776–87 | Franklin is the only person to sign all three key documents in the creation of the United States: the Declaration of Independence (1776) the Treaty of Paris (1783) and the Constitution (1787). In 1775, he is forced to flee.ġ776–85 | In Paris in an ambassadorial role. This is rejected in 1768.ġ766: Following Franklin’s triumphant appearance before the House of Commons, the hated Stamp Act is repealed.ġ764–75 | The slow transformation of Franklin from government supporter to British opponent. After the accession of George III, he builds links with Prime Minister Bute.ġ762–64 | After a spell in Philadelphia, he returns to London to make Pennsylvania a British Royal Colony. ![]() At age 12, he is apprenticed to his printer brother, before moving to Philadelphia in 1723.ġ724–26 | Franklin becomes a printer in London before returning to Philadelphia as a fierce Anglophile.ġ726–57 | He enjoys great success as a printer, newspaper owner and journalist and then turns to science, winning the 18th‑century equivalent of the Nobel Prize.ġ757–62 | Franklin returns to London as the first great transatlantic celebrity on a mission to make the Penn proprietors of Pennsylvania pay taxes. Timeline: Benjamin Franklin's life and revolutionary activitiesġ706 | Benjamin Franklin is born the son of a tallow chandler (candlemaker).
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