Consenting Fathers: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson <Tab/>Though Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were contemporaries, their views, backgrounds and modes of influence were very different. Benjamin Franklin was born of a large and poor family and rose to become a model of the emerging bourgeois classes in the American Colonies. Throughout his long and life, Franklin succeeded in business, science, and excellent statesmanship. Thomas Jefferson, however, rose out of an …showed first 75 words of 1112 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1112 total…ideas of religion and education, although only two of a wide variety of topics these men focus on, provide an insight into the minds of each man and a method of determining that the minds of two eighteenth century men could often meet on many different levels. Works Cited Franklin, Benjamin. "Autobiography." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed Nina Baym. New York: Norton, 2003. 538-609. Mansfield, Harvey Jr., ed. Thomas Jefferson Selected Writings. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, 1979.