Episode Details

Benjamin Franklin was a printer, scientist, inventor, diplomat—and possibly one of the most effective intelligence operators of the American Revolution.

While living in London, Franklin cultivated political contacts, acquired private correspondence, and secretly sent sensitive information back to the colonies. During the Revolution, his diplomatic mission in Paris became a center of intrigue, filled with spies, double agents, intercepted letters, secret codes, and British attempts to penetrate the American delegation.

The remarkable part? One of Britain's most valuable spies was working inside Franklin's own household—and Franklin may never have discovered him.

So was Benjamin Franklin actually a spy? Or was espionage simply an unavoidable part of eighteenth-century diplomacy?

In this episode of History Shorts, we enter the shadowy intelligence war behind the American Revolution and explore Franklin's secret networks, covert operations, and the surprising ways America's most famous founding grandfather played the spy game.

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