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The Founders and the Constitution, Part 12: Benjamin Franklin

The Founders and the Constitution, Part 12: Benjamin Franklin
"Benjamin Franklin," circa 1785, by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725–1802). National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Public Domain
Rob Natelson
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Commentary

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on Jan. 6, 1706, the youngest son among a tradesman’s 15 children by two successive wives. He had two years of formal education. At the age of 12, he was apprenticed to his older brother James, a printer. Five years later, he ran away to New York. He couldn’t find a job there. He was forced to travel on to Philadelphia, arriving with one Dutch dollar and about 20 pence in copper.

Rob Natelson
Rob Natelson
Author
Robert G. Natelson, a former constitutional law professor who is senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, authored “The Original Constitution” (4th ed., 2025). He is a contributor to The Heritage Foundation’s “Heritage Guide to the Constitution.” He also researched and wrote the scholarly article “Virgil and the Constitution,” whose publication is pending in Regent University Law Review.
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