Discount Price: $100.00
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.30922
EAN num: 9780195057454
ISBN number: 0195057457
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: August 09, 1990
Publishing house: Oxford University Press, USA
Sale Popularity Level: 927702
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
When Benjamin Franklin flew his kite in a thunderstorm in his famous experiment, his illegitimate son William was his only companion. Together they traveled through the western wilds of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War, fought in the colony's fractious political battles. Ben helped his son attain the post of Royal Governor of New Jersey, and William's government hired Ben to represent the colony in London. But when war came, father and son were split: one acclaimed as a patriot hero, the other a loyalist condemned by his countrymen.
In William Franklin, Sheila Skemp tells the story of this fascinating and complex man, a man with a foot in both worlds--he loved both King and country, and saw the interests of both as inextricably intertwined. She follows William's early years as a militia officer in the wars with the French, his life as a law student in England, and his long tenure as Royal Governor of New Jersey. Skemp highlights the close personal and political relationship between father and son, depicting such ironic episodes as William's defense of his father against charges that Ben was the author of the infamous Stamp Act. But as the years passed, Ben, in London, grew increasingly bitter toward the Crown, while William, in America, remained devoted to the King. By the time war came, their loyalties were divided, their relationship destroyed.
Skemp traces William's career through the tumult of revolution and exile. Refusing to follow his fellow royal governors into asylum, he was arrested by the patriots and jailed; his wife soon died, and his property was confiscated. Upon release, William became president of the Board of Associated Loyalists in New York, where--neglected by the British and despised by the revolutionaries--he authorized one of the most notorious atrocities of the war, the hanging of Joshua Huddy. At war's end, Franklin fled into exile in England, hated by his countrymen, and disowned by the father he still venerated, and even loved.
Sweeping and authoritative, William Franklin captures some of the great issues and personalities of the Revolutionary era, and the bitterness of a family split between father and son, patriot and loyalist.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
William Franklin, born in 1730, was the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. He traveled to England with his father in 1757 and married there; upon his return he was appointed governor of New Jersey. He performed his duties well and was highly regarded by the assembly that worked under him. Skemp describes Franklin as a great conciliator, able to appreciate both sides of every argument. He knew the colonists opposed increased taxation and the sending of British troops to Boston, but he also knew how much England needed the colonies and how they couldn't afford to totally antagonize them; he tried to walk the middle ground between the two sides. It became more and more difficult for him to succeed in this tack, and after Lexington and Concord, his days as governor became numbered.
According to Skemp Franklin was vain, ambitious, authoritarian, and stubborn when it came to principles. He could be fiercely loyal, as he was to the Crown, which he believed could best serve the colonists. Rather than flee as many other royal governors did when hostilities seemed imminent, Franklin stuck it out, trying to persuade the assembly to deal with England and to reject the Continental Congress. This failed, of course, and in June 1776, he was arrested and imprisoned in Connecticut. Released in 1778, he went to British-held New York and became a leader of a loyalist group that fought against the Americans. After the war he fled the country for England, where he died in 1813.
The relation between Ben and William is an interesting one that has intrigued historians over the years. They were very close at first, but opposing views regarding Crown and country separated them; their shared vanity and unyieldiness to principle is what probably made the separation permanent. Skemp is an excellent writer and writes a very clear account of her subject's life. Included is an excellent annotated bibliography. Highly recommended.
Find other books like this one:
