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[shpankey]

I've been researching for about an hour or so and cannot find the exact reason for his death. Although I have found some tidbits... like his being bed ridden the last year of his death and a couple of extremely vague hints.

Quite frustrating as Google turns up little.

Does anyone even know or is it a mystery?

 

[Drozmight]

oldness?

 

[shpankey]

Yes he was old, but even then, there is a reason actually.

 

[fennec fox]

You should visit Ben's grave in Philadelphia, like I did, and then you'd know that

Franklin himself had composed the black-bordered Pennsylvania Gazette which announced his death. Dr. Jones, Franklin's physician, informed the readers of Franklin's final illness. He had been suffering from empyema, pus filling in his lung brought on by attacks of pleurisy many years earlier. His temperature was high. This made breathing laborious, and he almost suffocated. After several days of breathing woes, the pain went away for a day, upon which he left his bed and asked that it be made properly so that he might have a dignified death. His daughter, Sally, told him that she hoped he would live many years more. "I hope not," he replied.

An abscess in Franklin's lung burst and he passed into a coma. He died on April 17, 1790, with his grandsons William Temple and Bennie at his side. Benjamin Franklin was 84 years old.

 

[explodet]

(translation: I have no idea)

 

[Ned Flanders]

OD'ed on quaaludes...just couldn't escape the pull of those colonial-era discos..

 

[Dilbert]

I heard the anti-Masonic forces got him...but not before he hid something important in a brick!

 

[Drozmight]

They probably didn't do an autopsy... so we'll probably never know an exact reason other than he was old.

Edit: Nevermind.

 

[shpankey]

You should visit Ben's grave in Philadelphia, like I did, and then you'd know that

Franklin himself had composed the black-bordered Pennsylvania Gazette which announced his death. Dr. Jones, Franklin's physician, informed the readers of Franklin's final illness. He had been suffering from empyema, pus filling in his lung brought on by attacks of pleurisy many years earlier. His temperature was high. This made breathing laborious, and he almost suffocated. After several days of breathing woes, the pain went away for a day, upon which he left his bed and asked that it be made properly so that he might have a dignified death. His daughter, Sally, told him that she hoped he would live many years more. "I hope not," he replied.

An abscess in Franklin's lung burst and he passed into a coma. He died on April 17, 1790, with his grandsons William Temple and Bennie at his side. Benjamin Franklin was 84 years old.

Thank you soooo much!

 

[Kobun Heat]

You live to fucking EIGHTY-FOUR during the colonial era, that's some amazing shit right there. To put this in perspective that's like you or I living to the age of two hundred. Everybody he grew up with had probably already been dead for forty years by the time he finally kicked it. Ben Franklin was a goddamned superhero.

 

[Drozmight]

? Jefferson was 82 when he died. It's probably because these dudes were so rich.

 

[AstroLad]

You live to fucking EIGHTY-FOUR during the colonial era, that's some amazing shit right there. To put this in perspective that's like you or I living to the age of two hundred. Everybody he grew up with had probably already been dead for forty years by the time he finally kicked it. Ben Franklin was a goddamned superhero.

I don't even know if a person that fat, that basically lived a totally unhealthy lifestyle could even live to see 50 today, they'd die of a heart attack/type 2 diabetes way before that. Truly incredible.

 

[shpankey]

Yeah Ben Franklin was extremely wealthy (and generous in his death to all that touched him -- except for his son William who ratted him out to the British and almost got him killed). But he gave generously in his Will.

 

[Kobun Heat]

? Jefferson was 82 when he died. It's probably because these dudes were so rich.

Well, probably.

 

[Joe]

i figured i would google up some benjamin franklin sites to see if i could find out why/how he died and i got to reading...and damn benjamin franklin is the man. benjamin franklin is wayyyy underrated (even though he is on the $100 bill).

 

[Socreges]

benjamin franklin is wayyyy underrated

Yeah, really. 18th Century Man Monthly placed him in seventh or something. Idiots.

 

[Drozmight]

Jefferson > Franklin.

 

[Joe]

Jefferson > Franklin.

ILL FIGHT YOU

FRANKLIN 4 LIFE

 

[Drozmight]

En garde!

 

[gohepcat]

Ben truely was the shit. Big in to seperation of church and state. Developed the lightning rod and didn't patent it because he wanted it to be affordable for everyone and he thought he was already rich enough. Developed the concept of the modern fire department, "discovered" electricity. Coined the phrase "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" Pragmatic, cool headed, intellectual, curious, funny.

We need some more people like him around here today.

 

[Drozmight]

Ben truely was the shit. Big in to seperation of church and state. Developed the lightning rod and didn't patent it because he wanted it to be affordable for everyone and he thought he was already rich enough. Developed the concept of the modern fire department, "discovered" electricity. Coined the phrase "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" Pragmatic, cool headed, intellectual, curious, funny.

We need some more people like him around here today.

The only reason Jefferson is my favorite founding father is that he didn't own slaves... and he invented the swivel chair... thank god. Plus, his house is friggin' awesome. But yeah, Franklin was still a badass.

 

[Ferrio]

Franklin was also a freaky sex addict.

 

[tenchir]

dp

 

[tenchir]

The only reason Jefferson is my favorite founding father is that he didn't own slaves... and he invented the swivel chair... thank god. Plus, his house is friggin' awesome. But yeah, Franklin was still a badass.

Jefferson did own slaves(187 of them)...... and slept with some of them..... You never heard of the controversies surrounding his current descendants?

 

[Drozmight]

Really? I thought he only had servants.

 

[tenchir]

Really? I thought he only had servants.

Google Jefferson and slaves, he definitely had a lot of them(and had children from those slaves). I guess the only reason for Jefferson being your favorite is gone now eh. Oh wait, he still invented the swivel chair...... or did he?

 

[Drozmight]

I know he invented the swivel chair for sure. But yeah, I just found this on the Monticello website.

Jefferson inherited slaves from both his father and father-in-law. In a typical year, he owned about 200, almost half of them under the age of sixteen. About eighty of these lived at Monticello; the others lived on adjacent Albemarle County plantations, and on his Poplar Forest estate in Bedford County, Virginia. Jefferson freed two slaves in his lifetime and five in his will and chose not to pursue two others who ran away. All were members of the Hemings family; the seven he eventually freed were skilled tradesmen.

On a side not Franklin owned only two (+1 for him). I must've gotten them mixed up not paying attention to lecture in one of my Humanities classes.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

You should visit Ben's grave in Philadelphia, like I did, and then you'd know that

one of my friends from high school went there and i remember him telling me that the tour guide told everyone Ben Franklin was hung like a horse.

 

[shpankey]

Franklin was also a freaky sex addict.

this is why i like him, he seems more human than like lincoln and washington. i can relate to him a little more cause he had some flaws that all of us have. i found it interesting how much the French honor him also, they gave him a royal tribute with all the pomp and circumstance of a king when he died.

 

[Phoenix]

I've been researching for about an hour or so and cannot find the exact reason for his death. Although I have found some tidbits... like his being bed ridden the last year of his death and a couple of extremely vague hints.

Quite frustrating as Google turns up little.

Does anyone even know or is it a mystery?

His heart stopped beating.

 

[lexi]

Franklin was the most progressive of the founding fathers, even in his young teens he was opposed to the oppresive manner women were treated in.

He also had a great sense of humor, and frequently wrote Letters to the Editor under various pseudonyms. Silence Dogood, for one.

 

[theo]

he is also the author of this quote:

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

 

[lilraylewis]

He was also really poor growing up, right? Ol' Ben is a self-made man.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Dunno why I just thought of this, but weren't Hamilton and Jefferson really close to each other, and died on the same day? What's the quote that one of them said about the other when they heard about their death?

 

[mCACGj]

Jefferson > Franklin.

Yeah, with all his slaves doing all his work...I wouldnt be suprised if they came up with his ideals and opinions as well.

 

[ManaByte]

You all should watch the History Channel more often. They just had a two-hour documentary on Franklin.

The History Channel is the best channel for WWII buffs also as WWII stuff is like 85% of the programming (including Band of Brothers).

 

[UltimateMarioMan]

I've been researching for about an hour or so and cannot find the exact reason for his death. Although I have found some tidbits... like his being bed ridden the last year of his death and a couple of extremely vague hints.

Quite frustrating as Google turns up little.

Does anyone even know or is it a mystery?

He ceased being alive.

 

[shpankey]

Yeah, with all his slaves doing all his work...I wouldnt be suprised if they came up with his ideals and opinions as well.

:lol

His heart stopped beating.

this was in actual fact, the result of his dying, not the cause of it.

 

[cvxfreak]

Didn't Jefferson have a child with that slave, Sally what's-her-name?

 

[ConfusingJazz]

this was in actual fact, the result of his dying, not the cause of it.

Techincally, he died because of lack of oxygen in the brain. Granted the cause of THAT was the pus filled lung thing.

 

[Matt]

Dunno why I just thought of this, but weren't Hamilton and Jefferson really close to each other, and died on the same day? What's the quote that one of them said about the other when they heard about their death?

That was Jefferson and Adams who died on the same day, but their actual relationship was very rocky. They were friends during the Constitutional Conventions, but when Adams was running for re-election to the Presidency, Jefferson was involved in some very deceitful and malicious campaigning against him. Adams then decide to hate Jefferson, and refused to talk to him for many years, until eventually they started communicating though letters. By the time they both died, they were indeed very close friends again, and in fact Adams last words were “Jefferson lives,” which manages to be poignant, sad, and ironic, for Jefferson had in fact died earlier in the day.

 

[shpankey]

that's incredible really, thanks for sharing it with us. cool.