Portrayed by Roberta Sloan

Ms. Sloan is a passionate Deborah Franklin, demonstrating the energy and expertise it must have taken to run a business, raise children, and sustain a marriage with one of the major characters in the American pantheon. Both women are the same height and have the same coloring, and both are capable women who hold positions of authority that command respect.  Roberta brings us a Deborah Franklin who was a firecracker, defending her home with a gun against attack by citizens who were angry that her husband didn’t fight the Stamp Act more forcefully. She shows us an untrained entrepreneur who succeeded against incredible odds, as well as revealing a mother continuing to raise another woman’s son after Deborah’s own boy dies at 4 from the pox. She reveals a religious wife maintaining a household that includes slaves, yet learning to recognize the evils of slavery. And she brings us a lonely wife who adores her husband, often from afar.

Deborah Read Franklin is an important member of the Founding Families who deserves our recognition and our respect.

Invite Deborah Franklin to your event:

• Pair with Benjamin Franklin, Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross, Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, Oney Judge, Hercules
• Educational Programs: Schools, Libraries, Museums, Historical Sites, 40 minutes plus Q & A
• Roberta Sloan: Bio of Actor/Historian, Reenactor, or Impersonator