2021年11月，史密森尼美国历史博物馆开设了一个名为“电气化的富兰克林博士”的展览，介绍了“本杰明·富兰克林在电学领域的开创性贡献”。该展览指出，在成为废奴主义者之前，他的家中曾拥有奴隶。展览宣称：“本杰明·富兰克林卓越的科学成就，部分得益于奴隶制的存在。”
In November 2021, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened an exhibit called “The Electric Dr. Franklin,” describing “Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering contributions to electrical science.” The exhibit explained that, prior to becoming an abolitionist, he had enslaved people in his household. “Benjamin Franklin’s remarkable scientific accomplishments were, in part, enabled by slavery,” it declared.
该展览推测，富兰克林可能在其电学研究中使用了奴隶。“富兰克林曾描述过一些实验，他在其中承受电击，并以类似方式使用家人和朋友，尽管他很少具体指明是谁在协助他，”该展览陈述道，该展览已于2025年关闭，但仍可在线找到。“他家中的契约仆人和奴隶也可能被使用，尽管我们可能永远无法确定。”
The exhibit speculated that Franklin may have used enslaved people in his electrical research. “Franklin wrote about experiments in which he took shocks and used family and friends in these ways, although he seldom identified who in particular assisted him,” stated the exhibit, which closed in 2025 but can still be found online. “Indentured servants and enslaved people in his household could also have been used, although we may never know for certain.”
这是一个引人注目的推测：最受尊敬的开国元勋之一，让被强迫束缚的人承受可能痛苦的电击。这是7月发布的一份措辞严厉的162页白宫报告中被单独点名批评的众多细节之一。该报告辩称，该博物馆已沦为“意识形态俘获”的受害者，这“使博物馆的使命从直接的历史教育和学术研究转向了旨在改造我们国家的极端政治活动主义。”
It was an eye-catching conjecture: one of the most revered of the Founding Fathers subjecting people held against their will to possibly painful shocks. And it was one of many details singled out for criticism in a blistering 162-page White House report released in July that argued that the museum had fallen victim to an “ideological capture” that “moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.”