‘Protestant Work Ethic’: W.E.B. Du Bois vs. Benjamin Franklin

One of the most famed exemplars of notions of 17th-18th Century Protestant work ethic was Benjamin Franklin. And Franklin bears a conspicuous resemblance to the formation of this facet of W.E.B. Du Bois’s early zeal-like Puritanical reform efforts within the African American community albeit a full century later with Du Bois’s earliest writings appearing in newspapers from 1883-1885.

Though not widely known, in 1956, seven years before Du Bois’s death in Ghana, Africa, the Vienna World Peace Council asked him to write a biographical account of Benjamin Franklin’s life. The biography was to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Franklin’s birth. Among other things, the biography focused on Franklin’s scientific efforts, his hatred of cant and orthodox religion, and his fanatic devotion to improving the well-being of his fellow Americans.

While Du Bois’s The Story of Benjamin Franklin consisted of only thirty-nine pages, this was indeed a noteworthy, unprecedented moment in American print history: the most looming figure in African American letters was requested to document the life of one of the most formative figures in the whole of American letters. In considering Franklin’s life and letters alongside Du Bois’s, one notices several striking parallels-parallels that did not escape Du Bois’s shrewd perception.

Like Franklin, Du Bois was reared in the New England Congregationalist tradition and later disavowed it. As teenagers, both men undertook their first printed efforts, in the form of moralizing columns-Franklin for his brother’s New England Courant newspaper under the guise of Mrs. Silence Dogood, and Du Bois for T. Thomas Fortune’s New York Globe. Also, both men shared a devotion to scientific and rational pursuits of truth throughout their long careers in public life. However, the most provocative link between these famous personages found throughout their various labors in print media was their consistent choice of theme: moral and ethical improvement. Many of Franklin’s moral and ethical commentaries were directed toward his eighteenth-century American compatriots, and Du Bois’s would be directed toward his fellow compatriots as well-late-nineteenth-century African Americans.

To the vexation of the many generations of readers who have sought wisdom in these stalwarts’ writings for their own moral and ethical (even intellectual) betterment, neither Benjamin Franklin nor W.E.B. Du Bois ever confessed that their intrinsic gifts and abilities were far superior to those of most men and women, making many of their puritanical expections of their fellow-citizens (albeit a century apart) nearly impossible. Perhaps this also led to both of their radical disavowals of religion in favor of scientific discovery.