Benjamin Franklin was a internationally-renowned scientist and philosopher (there was really no distinction between the two at the time). He was acknowledged as a leader among the American revolutionary generation. He was present when independence was declared, represented the new nation in France, where he helped negotiate decisive French military aid in the war, and later was present at the Philadelphia Convention that wrote the United States Constitution. The life of Phyllis Wheatley was very different. She was born in West Africa, where she was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Like Franklin, however, she was educated (mostly self-educated) at a young age, and like Franklin, she spent her early years in Boston. Also like Franklin, her talents were discovered by influential patrons at a relatively young age, and quickly became recognized (at least by some--Thomas Jefferson made his contempt for her poetry known) as a genius. Wheatley enjoyed neither of the advantages of race and gender that Franklin did, however, and died in poverty at a young age not long after producing her famous book of poetry.