Sign-In
Cart
Founding Daughter
Paperback
Publisher Price: $18.99
ISBN13: 9781967547937
Publisher: Paper Angel Press
Published: Apr 8 2026
Pages: 196
Weight: 0.59
Height: 0.45 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What if the noble words of the Declaration of Independence were not written by Thomas Jefferson, but by an author of much lower station still aspiring to be free? What if life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was the idea of an especially precocious, bookish, half-Black, teenaged servant girl with a boundless faith in the ideas of the Enlightenment?
In a grimy, frigid flat in post-revolutionary Paris, in the days of ruin after Napoleon, an old man named Temple Franklin lies dying in squalor and misery. Born into privilege and family eminence, he has nothing to look back on but a life of debauchery and waste.
Adrift on an ocean of regret and paralyzed by fear of divine judgment, Temple decides to unleash onto the world a secret from his youth he has kept entombed in memory for decades. It is a secret likely to upend the historical reputation of his sainted grandfather Benjamin Franklin, and to unmask the perversity at the heart of the nation that old Ben was instrumental in establishing.
Set amid the revolutionary ferment of Philadelphia in 1776, Founding Daughter is packed with familiar figures like Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Paine. But they all take a back seat to the compelling love story between starstruck young Temple Franklin, an actual historical figure, and exuberant, idealistic Charlotte Lottie Berbich, a literary creation inspired in part by the life of young 18th-century Black poet Phillis Wheatley. Faithful to history-except when it's not-this story is a galvanizing reminder that American ideals, as articulated in our nation's founding documents, belongs to all Americans, especially to those still struggling to be free.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Baine, Wallace
A Light in the Midst of Darkness: The Story of a Bookshop, a Community and True Love
Baine, Wallace
Paperback
Also in
Historical Fiction
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
Anniversaries, Volume 2: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl, April 1968-August 1968
Johnson, Uwe
Paperback
The Pirate Queen: A Novel from the New York Times Bestselling Author of the Frozen River
Lawhon, Ariel
Hardcover
The Moonlight Runner: A Gripping Historical Novel of Survival, Bravery, and Romance
Robards, Karen
Hardcover
The Pirate Queen: A Novel from the New York Times Bestselling Author of the Frozen River (Large Print Edition)
Lawhon, Ariel
Paperback
The Amalfi Curse: A Bewitching Tale of Sunken Treasure, Forbidden Love, and Ancient Magic on the Amalfi Coast
Penner, Sarah
Paperback
A Pair of Aces: Reese's Book Club (Large Print Edition)
Benedict, Marie
Murray, Victoria Christopher
Paperback
Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
Christie, Agatha
Paperback