Benjamin and William Franklin Father and Son, Patriot and Loyalist

by Skemp, Sheila L.

• ISBN13: 9780312086176
• ISBN10: 0312086172
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-03-15
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

The American Revolution was a civil war as well as a war for independence. The experience of Benjamin Franklin and his son, William, royal governor of New Jersey, reveals America's internal struggle over the question of loyalty to England. A collection of letters accompanies Sheila Skemp's narrative of the two men, bonded by blood, divided by political cause.

Author Biography

Sheila L. Skemp is associate professor of history at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King (1990), and has served as an editor of two volumes dealing with issues of race and gender in the South. She is currently working on a biography of Judith Sargent Murray. Skemp was the recipient of the University of Mississippi's award for Outstanding Teacher in the Liberal Arts.

Table of Contents

Foreword	v
Preface	vii
PART ONE Benjamin and William Franklin	1	(152)
Introduction: Divided Loyalties	3	(4)
Self-Made Men	7	(21)
Forging a Partnership	28	(11)
Government Men	39	(17)
Men in the Middle	56	(14)
The Making of a Patriot	70	(18)
The Making of a Loyalist	88	(16)
Toward Independence	104	(22)
``When in the Course of Human Events''	126	(27)
Epilogue	148	(5)
PART TWO The Documents	153	(42)
Letter to Benjamin Franklin, September 7, 1765	155	(2)
William Franklin
Letter to William Franklin, November 9, 1765	157	(3)
Benjamin Franklin
``Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies,'' 1767, 1768	160	(4)
John Dickinson
Letter to Lord Hillsborough, November 23, 1768	164	(5)
William Franklin
``Causes of the American Discontents before 1768,'' January 1768	169	(6)
Benjamin Franklin
Speech to the New Jersey Assembly, January 13, 1775	175	(3)
William Franklin
Letter to Lord Dartmouth, May 6, 1775	178	(5)
William Franklin
Letter to William Franklin, August 16, 1784	183	(12)
Benjamin Franklin
APPENDICES
A Franklin Chronology (1706-1814)	185	(6)
Selected Bibliography	191	(4)
Index	195