Okay so honestly, it started because I was deep down this rabbit hole about Benjamin Franklin. You know how it goes, one minute you’re reading about kites and lightning, next thing you know you’re wondering, “Wait, who was that wife of his everyone kinda glosses over?” Yeah, Deborah Read. And man, finding real details felt like pulling teeth. Most stuff just said “wife of Franklin” and called it a day. So I got this itch – what was she really about?
I rolled up my sleeves and jumped into the archives online, which usually is a graveyard for famous dudes, not their wives. Dead ends everywhere. But I remembered seeing mentions of slave ownership in passing on some obscure academic blog. That stopped me cold. Everyone paints colonial Philly a certain way, right? This felt… off-brand. So I focused on that first.
Here’s what my digging looked like:
- Census Sniffing: Started combing through old Pennsylvania censuses line by line, eyes blurring. Found the Franklins listed. Then, squinting at the “number of persons” versus named individuals – the math didn’t add up. Unnamed people counted. Strong indicator.
- Old Ad Hunting: Went searching digital newspaper archives, looking for anything Franklin-related. Wasn’t finding much until I switched tactics and just looked for ads placed by Deborah. Bingo! Several ads signed “Deborah Franklin” placed right in the Pennsylvania Gazette. And guess what they were doing? Selling stuff? Nope. Trying to recapture enslaved people who’d run away. The language was brutal. Clear proof she actively owned and managed slaves. This wasn’t just passive; she was enforcing it.
That discovery totally changed my perspective. Got me fired up to find more about her life, not just Ben’s shadow. So I chased down other rabbit trails:
- Business Boss: Kept following the business trail. Found financial records, letters from Ben where he specifically mentions trusting her to run the shop, handle accounts. She wasn’t just minding the home; she was a legit business manager handling the money flow while Ben was off politicking. Even Ben wrote that she was crucial to their wealth.
- Family Drama: Hit another roadblock with her son William. Why the massive lifelong rift? Dug into wills and personal letters. Turns out, Franklin family letters hinted at a big blowout before the Revolution, something deep and personal between Deborah and William. Theories are swirling – politics? Loyalty? Her feelings about his illegitimate status? But the concrete fact is their relationship was destroyed long before 1774, way before Ben chose William’s side publicly. She cut him off cold.
- Overlooked Toughness: You hear vague stuff about “holding down the fort.” But man, reading first-hand accounts from the period? Philly was wild – diseases running rampant, constant political instability, riots, threats from various factions. Her letters describing managing the building projects, wrangling workers, keeping supplies coming during shortages, dealing with illness… it paints a picture of someone with serious grit. Not just enduring, but actively strategizing and surviving in a chaotic time while Ben was away for years.
- The Missing Grave: This one was kinda eerie. Everyone knows Ben’s big fancy tomb. But Deborah? I started looking for specifics about her burial. Hit a wall. Finally found conflicting reports in old historical society notes. Some say Christ Church Burial Ground, where Ben is. But others point to a record indicating she might have been buried in the property they owned near the Delaware River. And that whole plot just… vanished later. No marker, no definite location. Symbolic, almost – forgotten in death too.
Putting it all together felt wild. We learn so much about Ben, but his wife? She was a complex, flawed, capable person managing a brutal business, navigating deep personal loss, holding a chaotic household together, and participating in a horrific system. Finding those five concrete facts – the slave ownership ads, the business management proof, the pre-Revolution family split, the sheer scale of her responsibilities during crisis, the lost grave – it wasn’t just trivia. It felt like rescuing pieces of a real person from the dust. Made the whole “wife of Franklin” title seem ridiculous. She deserved way more credit – and way more scrutiny. Honestly, the colonial period feels way messier and more human after digging into Deborah’s hidden story. Felt good to share these secrets!
