Franklin Benjamin Sanborn
| Franklin Benjamin Sanborn | |
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December 15, 1831 Hampton Falls, New Hampshire |
| Died | February 24, 1917 (aged 85) Plainfield, New Jersey |
| Cause of death | died subsequent to injuries suffered when struck by a baggage car at the train station, on a visit with his son Francis. |
| Resting place | Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | journalist, author, historian, abolitionist, social reformer |
| Children | Thomas Parker Sanborn, Victor Channing Sanborn, Francis Bachiler Sanborn |
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Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (December 15, 1831 – February 24, 1917) was an American journalist, author, and reformer. Sanborn was a social scientist, and a memorialist of American transcendentalism who wrote early biographies of many of the movement's key figures. He founded the American Social Science Association, in 1865, "to treat wisely the great social problems of the day." He was a member of the Secret Six, or "Committee of Six," which funded the militant abolitionist John Brown.
Franklin Sanborn was born at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, the son of Aaron and Lydia (Leavitt) Sanborn. He already believed himself capable of making a stir in the world by the age of two, having held up a stick in a thunderstorm and experienced being struck by lightning. At age nine, following careful reading of the pro-emancipation journals The National Era and Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune, Frank announced to his family that slavery was wrong and the United States Constitution should be revised or revoked.
In 1850, at the suggestion of his future wife Ariana Walker, Sanborn arranged to study with the Exeter teacher and private tutor John Gibson Hoyt. He would focus on Greek for a year, then enter Phillips Exeter Academy. This was followed by enrollment at Harvard, from which he graduated in 1855.
Sanborn was active in politics as a member of the Free Soil Party in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In 1856, he became secretary of the Massachusetts Kansas Commission and came into close touch with John Brown. Sanborn was one of six influential men who supplied Brown with support for the raid on Harper's Ferry on October 16–18, 1859. This group was later termed the Secret Six. Although Sanborn disavowed advance-knowledge of the attack, he would defend Brown to the end of his life, assist in the support of his widow and children, and make periodic pilgrimages to Brown's grave.
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