Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet

The incredible story of Benjamin Franklin’s parting gift to the working-class people of Boston and Philadelphia—a deathbed wager that captures the Founder’s American Dream and his lessons for our current, conflicted age.

Benjamin Franklin was not a gambling man. But at the end of his illustrious life, the Founder allowed himself a final wager on the survival of the United States: a gift of two thousand pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump-start their careers. Each loan would be repaid with interest over ten years. If all went according to Franklin’s inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would be a windfall. 

In Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet, Michael Meyer traces the evolution of these twin funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Over time, Franklin’s wager was misused, neglected, and contested—but never wholly extinguished. With charm and inquisitive flair, Meyer shows how Franklin’s stake in the “leather-apron” class remains in play to this day, and offers an inspiring blueprint for prosperity in our modern era of growing wealth disparity and social divisions.

This surprising story of a Founding Father’s enduring vision explores:

• A Founding Father’s Last Gamble: How Benjamin Franklin’s deathbed wager of two thousand pounds was designed to benefit the working class of Boston and Philadelphia for two full centuries.
• An Epic of Economic History: The fascinating, often-contested journey of Franklin’s twin funds as they are misused, neglected, and adapted through two hundred years of American progress, from the age of silversmiths to the space race.
• The Birth of Philanthropy: A deep dive into the founder’s blueprint for American prosperity, revealing a unique vision for tackling wealth disparity long before it became a national conversation.
• Legacy and the American Dream: An inspiring look at how one man’s stake in the “leather-apron” class remains in play today, offering a powerful lesson on what it means to build a lasting legacy.