Franklin is a ghost town in Douglas County, Kansas, United States. Established as a proslavery stronghold, the town played a key role in the "Bleeding Kansas" conflict that troubled the territory in the 1850s.

Douglas County is located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and most populous city is Lawrence. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 118,785, making it the fifth-most populous county in Kansas. The county was named after Stephen Douglas, a U.S. Senator from Illinois and advocate for the popular sovereignty choice in the Kansas slavery debate.