Benjamin Franklin’s Life
Table of contents
Young Ben pg3
Candle making and printing p4-p7
Philadelphia pg7-pg8
The Main Events Of Ben’s Life pg9
The war pg9-pg13
Turning tides pg13
Last years pg13-pg15
Conclusion
Introduction
In these pages you will learn about Benjamin Franklin, a true genius and a founding father of America, his wife, his kids, his adventures, how he was believed to have had traits of the devil(!), and more. If you want to truly know a lot about Benjamin Franklin... read this!
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was a scientist, inventor, author, and statesman! According to the author, Benjamin Franklin was the second most important person to the USA (the most important was George Washington).
Young Ben
Benjamin Franklin grew up with 16 siblings! (brothers and sisters) some of which died young. Benjamin Franklin was the 15th child and also the youngest. As a child, Benjamin Franklin shared a bed with some of his brothers. Four interesting facts about Benjamin Franklin are:
#1 He was born on Sunday, which in colonial days, was a trait of the devil.
#2 He wrote with his left hand which was also believed to be a sign of the devil.
#3 Benjamin Franklin’s parents would punish him if they saw him using his left hand to write.
#4 Benjamin Franklin's favorite sports were swimming and kite flying.
Candle Making And Printing
When Benjamin Franklin was a kid his job was candle making. He didn’t like his job which entailed cutting candle wicks and pouring wax into molds. He must not have been fond of it.
Printing was Benjamin Franklin's second job as a kid and he worked as an apprentice for his brother. His brother was the boss of the place but as the boss he had to pay for Ben’s food and lodging. Ben proposed a deal that his brother gave him the meal money (the money to buy the food) and whatever money Ben didn't use, he could keep. His brother agreed to this deal. Benjamin Franklin took advantage of this and started eating only rice, boiled potatoes and cornmeal rush called Hasty Pudding; no meat.
Ben liked to read poetry so he decided to write some poems, including one that he wrote about Blackbeard the Pirate.
Fact: Blackbeard , a famous pirate, died on November 1718 and because of this, Ben wrote a poem about him in 1718. The poem went like this:
Will you hear of a bloody battle lately fought upon the seas? It will make your ears rattle, and your admiration cease.
Soon after that the people of Boston were talking about the twelve year old poet.
Another job that Ben had, was to help print the Boston Gazette. Benjamin Franklin's brother, James, started his own paper, The New England Courant. Ben delivered The Courant to customers and printed The Courant. (“Courant” is short for the name The New England Courant).
After some events enacted by Ben on April Fool’s Day and his writings in The Courant, James had grown upset and began beating Ben so often that Ben ran away.
Note: A runaway apprentice could be punished if he got caught. All alone, Ben boarded a boat going to New York City, 200 miles away with only a few coins in his pocket.
REMEMBER THIS: Ben got hungry on the trip to New York since he decided to walk half the way, so he bought three penny rolls. He stuffed two rolls under his arms and in his pockets and the other one in his mouth. As he was walking down the street of Pennsylvania, a women called Deborah Read laughed at the sight of Ben with three penny rolls and one in his mouth. (Debby is short for Deborah)
The governor of Pennsylvania was impressed by Ben’s printing ability so he made a deal with him that if Ben went from Philadelphia to England to buy printing supplies, the governor promised he would pay for the bills. Ben was thrilled. But the governor of Philadelphia was all talk-- he didn't stick to his word, and didn't pay for anything.
So Ben was stranded in England, 3,000 miles from home. But he made the best of things and got to work at a printing house. He met famous authors and scientists in 1725. At only the age of 19 Ben printed and wrote a booklet about religion!
Philadelphia
In the fall of 1726 Ben returned to Philadelphia where he searched for and finally found a printing business for himself in 1728 called The Pennsylvania Gazette. Soon Ben was the editor, printer, and star reporter for the The Pennsylvania Gazette. He drew one of the first cartoons to appear in the American newspapers. His company was also one of the first to print a map with an article. As a result, Ben’s company thrived. Here’s a funny fake story that Benjamin Franklin wrote:
“The canoe overturned, the wife could not swim but the man Saves his fiddle and lets His wife go to the bottom”.
Soon after Ben started his new job, Debby Read (remember when she laughed at Ben with his penny rolls?) and Ben wanted to get married but there were two problems: Ben had a child named William (Ben’s first wife is unknown) and Debby had gotten married while Ben was away raising a kid. Debby’s husband died in what the author said was a bar room fight. In colonial days remarrying was illegal if your husband was alive and you could be jailed for remarrying. As a result of some careful thinking, Ben found a legal way to marry Debby and they were married in 1730.
The Main Events Of Ben’s Life
(from 1732 and up)
According to the author these are the main points of Ben's life in chronological order from 1732 forward:
1732 Ben published Poor Richard's Almanac.
1752 Ben discovers the electrical nature of lightning and invents the lightning rod.
1753 Ben is named Postmaster for America.
1766 Ben argues against the Stamp Act before Parliament.
1774 Ben's wife Debby dies.
1775 the Revolutionary War begins.
1775: The War
People of England did not like the fact that the taxes were sooo high for so many things such as: The Sugar Act,The Stamp Act, The Townshend Acts and The Tea Act. The people of England were furious. Consequently people became disloyal to the king of England. (The reason this war started was due to the French and Indian war which left Britain in deep debt so they needed money and made taxes on many things). As a result, people got angry and wanted to rebel. The war started in 1775. With Ben's son, William, on the British side and Ben on the American side, his wife dead, and with Britain blaming Ben for this war, Ben was probably feeling very hurt, Ben felt like he had to go back home and so he left. When Ben was at sea, war broke out between America and England.
Ben reached Philadelphia on May 5th, 1775. Ben was working 12 hours a day managing the United States Postal service, according to the author that is. This job may not seem important but it was crucial to winning the war. Ben soon had mail moving swiftly moving across the 13 colonies.
In order to get an edge in the war, America tried to get help from the Canadians, but despite a great effort on the part of the Americans and Ben, the Canadians contributed nothing. (Ben actually almost died due to a fever from his trip to Canada).
Ben was also a leader of congressmen who wanted to build a new country. When the congressmen who wanted to build a new country, created The Declaration Of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson did most the writing, while Ben improved and enhanced the writing. So together they created The Declaration Of Independence!
On July 4th, 1776, America was born. Even after such an accomplishment Ben was still sad. Ben was begging his son, William, to forget his place as Governor of New Jersey an come and join America but he refused. William was loyal to Britain and there was no changing him. Even after being replaced by a different person for governor, thrown in a cell and almost dying, William was still loyal to England!
In addition, there were rumors going around that Ben was a wizard and that he had built strange and powerful weapons such as giant mirrors that would burn the British Navy or a giant machine that could flip England upside down and a tiny device that could turn buildings to ash! All of these, of course, were just rumors that were made up, but some people in England believed what they said or heard so they feared Benjamin Franklin more than George Washington and his army!.
For a while America was trying to contact French leaders in order to ask for their help in the war but America knew that England had many spies so America tried invisible ink signed with code names. Congress sent Ben on a mission to get France on their side. After a year of work, Ben completed the mission and France was on their side in 1778.
Turning Tides
Now that France was on America's side, England had lost her edge in the war when French money, weapons, ships and troops stepped in and now then America was rebelling against the British. Soon, in 1783, the war had been decided and a peace treaty was made--America had won and gained independence!
Ben’s Last Years
Ben was planning on going home, but Congress wanted him to stay in France for a year or two, so he stayed for two years.
Then in 1785 Ben left to go to Southampton. When William was freed from jail he heard that his father, Ben Franklin was in Southampton. William went there an tried making up with him, but Ben could not forgive him for siding with England.
Ben made it back to Pennsylvania in 1885 and was elected governor. During these last years of his life, Ben stayed with his daughter Sally and her seven children.
Fact: Starting when Ben was 70, on each birthday he had he would count backwards.
One of the last acts Benjamin Franklin performed was to try to stop slavery. He served as a leader for anti-slavery. In fact, his very last public act, was to sign a paper that was sent to Congress. The paper asked that slavery be stopped. In Spring of 1790 Ben became very ill and died.
Conclusion
Ben Franklin was a talented author, scientist, inventor and statesman, but most important were his contributions to the United States. Without Ben, The United States would not exist. Ben Franklin played a critical role in establishing US independence by completing a mission to France and developing the Declaration of Independence. Ben also led the charge to stop slavery, which, unfortunately, didn’t happen in his lifetime but set the groundwork for this to happen in the future. There were barely any negative things one can say about Ben; he was truly a genius, and, in my opinion, the most important founding father of the United States. Do you think he was the most important person to America?
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