Benjamin Franklin's Bastard

Summary (from the publisher): Sixteen-year-old Anne is an uneducated serving girl at the Penny Pot tavern when she first meets the commanding Benjamin Franklin, and soon bears him a son she names William. But growing up a bastard amid the squalor of the Philadelphia slums isn't the life Anne wants for her boy. She makes a heartbreaking decision to give up William forever, allowing Benjamin and his common-law wife, Deborah, to raise him as their own.

Anne secretly watches out for her beloved child - as Deborah struggles to accept him - and takes great pride as William rises to become Royal Governor of New Jersey. But when the colonies begin to fight for independence from the British Crown, William is torn between allegiance to his beloved monarchy and his own father.

A poignant tale of passion, family, love, and war, Benjamin Franklin's Bastard skillfully draws together a remarkable cast of real characters to vividly re-create one of the most thrilling periods of history - the birth of the American nation.

Review: I won a copy of this book as a giveaway on Goodreads.

This novel skillfully recreates the lives of Benjamin Franklin and his family in this novel based on true events. Benjamin Franklin had far from a conservative and straight forward family ties. His wife Deborah was legally married to another man who deserted her. Therefore, Benjamin and Deborah could not legally wed, but were considered husband and wife after cohabitating for seven years, according to common law. Benjamin and his common-law wife took in his bastard son William to raise as their own. None of these acts did Benjamin and his wife in favors in the eyes of polite society in Philadelphia.

Although historically the identity of the mother of William Franklin isn't known, Cabot has imagined her to be a poor girl named Anne who gives up her son so that he will have the life she cannot provide for him. However, she still watches out for her son from afar, as she struggles to support herself through working a trade and also selling her body.

More than Benjamin Franklin or his son William, this novel was about the two women in Benjamin's life to me. His wife Deborah and his son's mother Anne both suffer and also benefit from their connection to Benjamin. Benjamin seems to draw them in in a way that they cannot resist. Anne describes him saying, "He delighted in many things - the heat of the fire on his back; the rich, greasy slice of goose on his tongue; the kick of the cider as it slid down his throat. She supposed that was part of what drew people to him - his childlike delight in things" (21). Benjamin's perspective is rarely seen; rather he is seen through the lens of the two women who probably know him best.

In many ways the novel does not paint a flattering portrait of either Benjamin or his son. Benjamin is seen as fickle in his affection and unapologetic for his discretions. His wife Deborah, upon catching him with another woman, is described by the author who writes, "Deborah stood, her heart snapped shut like a turtle's beak, her rage beating against it, her mind refusing to think beyond the single fact that she wanted to be shed of the scene before her" (154). Deborah suffers a lot taking in William to raise - and does she really have a choice? At the time, she was not Benjamin's legal wife and he could have left her had she refused to do as he asked. Additionally, although Benjamin is exceedingly generous to take in his son and find a position for his child's mother, he does not appear sympathetic to the pain she feels over being separated from her child. As he grows up, William becomes bitingly cruel to his adoptive mother, and spars with his father over politics.

Although I found it somewhat unlikely that Benjamin Franklin would have allowed his child's mother to still have any access or insight into her child's life after he took William in, I loved Cabot's recreation of this story. I loved the character of Anne, who was plucky and ingenious at always landed on her feet, despite her impoverished circumstances. I appreciate Cabot's choice to give voice to a woman that history has forgotten.

Stars: 4