Long before I watched this film, I watched another PBS documentary about Benjamin Franklin. This earlier film was by Muffie Meyer, who has made a few documentaries for PBS. These included “Alexander Hamilton,” “Dolley Madison,” and “Liberty! The American Revolution.” The Muffie Meyer film is an excellent film in its own right, which is some three hours long. This Ken Burns film is even longer: some four hours long. But I had low expectations going into this Ken Burns film. That is, Ken Burns’ “Thomas Jefferson” was practically a hatchet job on Mr. Jefferson. Specifically, among other things, it had great emphasis on the hypocrisy of Jefferson’s slaveholding. I actually agree with a number of their criticisms of Jefferson, but still found their take on him to be excessively negative. Thus, I was expecting to get the same kind of treatment in this later film about Benjamin Franklin. And, at first, it seemed like this film would be in the same vein as Ken Burns’ “Thomas Jefferson.” But, surprisingly, I ended up liking “Benjamin Franklin” a lot. I may like Ken Burns’ “Benjamin Franklin” even better than Muffie Meyer’s “Benjamin Franklin.”
This film is more sympathetic than I would have thought, and covers his political career
For one thing, this film has the Ken Burns touch. For example, it has great use of period images, period musical score, and voice actors dramatizing the quotations. It also has great sound effects to dramatize the pictures – for example, battle sounds when showing a painting of a battle. But this film also gives a mostly sympathetic portrayal of Dr. Franklin. This is something that I was not really expecting. They certainly talk about his slaveholding, and the racist attitudes of his early life. Unfortunately, slavery was still legal in the North during most of Franklin’s lifetime, which is why a Northerner like Franklin was then legally able to own slaves. But they also portray his transformation into a fervent abolitionist, and enthusiastically applaud his fortunate change of mind. This is part of why this film was more sympathetic than the film on Jefferson. Like most of the Founding Fathers, Mr. Jefferson never actively campaigned against slavery, and had contradictory views about the institution. By contrast, Dr. Franklin became one of the few Founding Fathers to actively campaign against slavery. This was after the compromises over slavery at the Constitutional Convention, which produced the document that bears Franklin’s name (among other names). Franklin was certainly aware of the compromises, and was responsible for negotiating some of them. But Benjamin Franklin also knew that the document had some unfinished business, and his famous postwar anti-slavery petitions could not be ignored by Congress – Franklin was just too influential.
Benjamin Franklin
But it also has more emphasis on his family relations, including with his wife Deborah
For another thing, this film has more emphasis on Franklin’s family relations than the Muffie Meyer film. Like Muffie Meyer’s coverage, it certainly dramatizes his political career – which I describe in my blog post about her own coverage. For example, both films examine his crucial diplomacy with France, which convinced the French to enter the war on the American side. But this film also goes into considerably more depth on Franklin’s family relationships. As a child, Benjamin Franklin was apprenticed to his brother, but the brother proved so tyrannical that the young Benjamin ran away from home. Thus, Benjamin made his start in Philadelphia. Franklin had an early interest in a young woman named Deborah Read, but he abandoned his pursuit of her when he went to England instead. He spent approximately as many years of his life in England as in the American colonies. Thus, Deborah Read married someone else instead. But her first husband soon abandoned her. Without a confirmation of the husband’s death, it was dangerous for her to marry Franklin at that time. Bigamy was severely prosecuted in the eighteenth century. Thus, Benjamin and Deborah cohabited, and she agreed to raise his illegitimate son from another woman as her own. Eventually, they did receive news of the first husband’s death. Thus, Deborah and Benjamin finally married at that time. This film makes the case that Franklin did not remain promiscuous throughout his entire life, although he did father one illegitimate child (as he acknowledged). That child was William Franklin. Benjamin tried to secure a good future for his son. William Franklin got a college education (which Benjamin himself had never received), as well as high positions in the British government. At this time, both Benjamin and William Franklin were fiercely loyal to England. But Benjamin Franklin made so many trips to England, that he spent many years away from his wife. During one of his trips there, Deborah died in Pennsylvania in 1774. As the scholars say herein, “if Franklin gets failing grades in any subject, it’s in family relationships” (or words to that effect). And when the American Revolution finally broke out, his family relationships would be strained even more.
Deborah Read, Benjamin Franklin’s wife
The American Revolution strained Franklin’s relationship with his Loyalist son William
Initially, Franklin tried to smooth things over between Britain and America. He even publicized some incriminating letters from Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts, where he encouraged the Crown to crack down on Boston. Franklin had obtained the letters perfectly legally, even though he was erroneously accused of “stealing” them. And he hoped that the letters would make the unpopular British actions seem more like the work of a few crazies. But the letters caused an outrage back in America, and caused the British to be infuriated with Benjamin Franklin himself. Franklin received a very public dressing-down, in a part of Parliament known as the “Cockpit.” He stood there for an hour, while vicious verbal abuse was heaped upon him. It was on that day that Benjamin Franklin decided to become a revolutionary. He saw the treatment of himself as “emblematic” of how the larger American colonies had been treated, and vowed his revenge upon the British. The British had made a dangerous enemy that day. But his son William was an American Loyalist, and stayed loyal to the British Crown. Thus, back in America, father and son had a heated argument late into the night, which persuaded neither one of them to change his mind. Benjamin Franklin later tried to get his sister to change William’s mind, but that also failed. Thus, father and son were now enemies. The earlier Muffie Meyer film certainly covers the relationship with his Loyalist son, but this Ken Burns film is better at putting it into perspective, and developing it in detail. Benjamin Franklin never forgave his son, incidentally – who conducted a terror campaign in the North, between the surrender at Yorktown and the 1783 Treaty of Paris. When Franklin later helped to negotiate that peace treaty, the British wanted “compensation” for all damage done by rebels to Loyalist property during the war. American ambassadors John Adams and John Jay remained noncommittal about this compensation. But, surprisingly, Benjamin Franklin angrily told the British that this was unacceptable, with a vehemence that astonished even John Adams. Relations with his Loyalist son may have influenced his attitudes. Franklin wanted no “compensation” for American Loyalists, and departed from his usual style of diplomacy when telling off the British.
William Franklin, the Loyalist son of Benjamin Franklin
Conclusion: Possibly the greatest film out there about Benjamin Franklin
After the peace treaty, William Franklin tried to reconcile with his now-famous father. But Benjamin Franklin was uninterested in a reconciliation. His last meeting with his son was treated purely as a business negotiation, much like those with the wartime British government. Benjamin Franklin demanded that William sign one legal document after another. William signed all of them. These included giving custody of William’s son Temple to his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin. This was their last meeting, and no reconciliation ever happened – even in letters. With actor Josh Lucas as the voice of William Franklin, this relationship is dramatized well. Incidentally, the actor Peter Coyote narrates this film. But, most importantly, Mandy Patinkin (famous for playing Inigo Montoya in “The Princess Bride”) is the voice of Benjamin Franklin himself. They dramatize his earlier role in the Declaration of Independence – and, as mentioned earlier, his important role in the Constitutional Convention. Their coverage of all of this is quite good. This, along with their extensive development of his family relationships, make this my favorite film on Benjamin Franklin – although, again, the Muffie Meyer film is a great documentary in its own right. Again, I had low expectations going into this film, and expected it to be somewhat unsympathetic. But this film surprised me in its sympathy, and had the usual Ken Burns touch. Thus, this film is highly recommended to Founding Father buffs, or to anyone who just enjoys a good biography.
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