Only Temple Franklin worried his grandfather. Bored with country life, he neglected the New Jersey farm he had inherited, longing to reunite with his mistress and son in Paris. Franklin tried to secure him an American diplomatic appointment abroad, but Temple’s reputation undermined his grandfather’s influence, and he could not get the position.
In his last years, Franklin found time for one more cause. Though he still owned slaves, he accepted the presidency of “The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.” In this capacity, he wrote letters to governors of northern states, reproaching them for allowing their seamen, ship captains and merchants to participate in the slave trade. When the first Congress met, the society presented a memorial that Franklin signed, urging an immediate abolition of slavery. James Jackson of Georgia attacked the proposal, stating the Bible sanctioned slavery, and Negroes were better off and happier as slaves.
A few days later, an essay appeared in the Federal Gazette, Philadelphia’s leading newspaper. It was supposed to be a statement by one Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a leading member of the Algerian government. Sidi argued against a small group of Algerians who wanted to abolish piracy and their country’s practice of enslaving white Christians. Sidi pointed out Christians were better off as slaves: They lived safe lives; they were well-fed, lodged, and clothed. “They are not liable to be impressed for soldiers, and forced to cut one another’s Christian throats, as in the wars of their own countries.” The real writer, of course, was Franklin, ridiculing Jackson’s speech in Congress. Although many Philadelphians were impressed, and Pennsylvania soon became one of the first northern states to abolish slavery, this institution was too entrenched in the South for Franklin or any other American of his time to defeat it.
A few weeks later, Franklin suffered an attack of pleurisy, the illness that had almost killed him when he twenty-one. This time, his body was too worn to resist. He slipped into a coma, and at 11:00 p.m. on April 17th, 1790, surrounded by his daughter and her family, as well as Temple and Polly, he died. He was eighty-four.
The Pennsylvania Gazette, with a black border, announced his death. While bells tolled and 20,000 watched, his coffin was lowered into the grave in Christ Church burying ground, beside his wife, Deborah.
Franklin’s will, published in Philadelphia newspapers, left his assets to Temple. He only bequeathed his antiquated claim to Nova Scotia lands to William, and he imposed one final indignity to his son: “The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of.”
Franklin’s heirs sold his estate at an auction not long after his death, selling his harpsichord, press, and coal gates for his Franklin stove. His house was demolished to accommodate a wider street.
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