Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the thirteenth child in his family, which would eventually have fifteen children. As a child he was smart and already showed a capacity to experiment and invent labor saving devices. After many false starts, Benjamin’s father apprenticed him to his brother, a printer for the Boston Gazette and the New-England Courant.
Benjamin became very successful at printing and contributed ballads to his brother’s paper. He sent his brother anonymous letters under the name of Silence Dogood that talked about controversial issues. When his brother went to jail for publishing a political point and was forbidden to print the paper anymore, Benjamin was voted in as new publisher. But when his brother came back, they quarreled so much that Benjamin fled to New York. Finding no success there, he went to Philadelphia. He worked at a couple of print shops in Philadelphia and then journeyed to London where he worked in more print shops. He was called back to the colonies to work as the chief clerk at his friend’s store in Philadelphia in 1726 at the age of twenty.
In Philadelphia Benjamin set up his own print shop and married Deborah Read. They had three children and eventually had ten grandchildren.
His friends and he set up the Junto Club, a group where the learned people of Philadelphia could get together to discuss politics and other matters. They set up the first subscription library in America. In 1736, he was appointed to the job of clerk of the Pennsylvania assembly. In 1737 he was made Deputy Postmaster of Philadelphia and in 1753 Deputy Postmaster General for all of the northern colonies. With his new government job he helped improve Philadelphia by doing things such as having the roads paved and creating the American Philosophical Society.
In 1732, he printed the first of many Poor Richard’s Almanacs, comic self-help books that he wrote under the name of Richard Saunders. He had many interesting habits. He took air baths every morning and sat in his bedroom stark naked either reading or writing depending on the season. He walked three miles a day and lifted weights. Despite all of his exercise he described himself as Dr. Fatsides.
Benjamin Franklin became fascinated with electricity especially the Leyden jar, which could store electricity. He killed turkeys and chickens with electricity and found their meat to be especially tender. In 1752, he proved that lightening was electricity by flying a kite in a storm. The kite was struck by lightening and electricity ran down the kite into a key, which Franklin touched and was electrocuted. He invented the lightening rod to keep houses and buildings from being struck by lightening and catching fire. He also invented other things including bifocal glasses and the Franklin stove.
The French and Indian War began in 1754 and Benjamin Franklin was made the leader of the Pennsylvania militia. After two months he came back to Philadelphia to a hero’s welcome. In Pennsylvania the family of William Penn, the founder, was the only family that did not pay taxes on their land. The Pennsylvania assembly elected Franklin to go to London to discuss property taxation with the Penn family. He was successful at getting some of the Penn’s land taxed. His son William traveled with him to London. There he married and was appointed royal governor of New Jersey by King George III.
In 1762, Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia. While there he found out about a group of men from the Donegal and the Paxton townships who called themselves the Paxton boys. They raided the villages of peaceful Indians and murdered men, women, and children. He defended Philadelphia from the Paxton boys but they still continued to raid villages in the west. The governor, John Penn supported the Paxton boys so even though Benjamin protested and petitioned they could not be brought to justice.
In 1764 Franklin arrived in London. When he got there that the Stamp Act, a tax on all kinds of paper goods was being discussed by Parliament. Soon it was passed. He openly suggested that two of his friends become agents to collect the tax. But he didn’t expect the type of uproar the Stamp Act caused in the colonies. His family’s house was surrounded by an angry mob. His family and friends got their guns and stood outside their house guarding the property. Franklin went before Parliament and said that the people would never pay the tax unless British soldiers forced them to. The Stamp Act was repealed. He was no longer considered a traitor in the colonies. Tempers rose in the colonies as new taxes were levied and British soldiers occupied the colonists land. Many fights broke our including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. In 1774, the first Continental Congress wrote a petition to the King asking for peace. Benjamin Franklin took this to Parliament and they rejected it. While he was petitioning his wife died. He mourned her death greatly.
While he was on his way back from London the battle of Lexington and Concord happened in Massachusetts and the war of American Revolution began. He was elected as representative of Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress in 1775. He helped write and revise the Declaration of Independence and Congress approved it on July 4, 1776. During most of the Revolutionary War trying to get French support for the American Revolution. In 1777, the Battle of Saratoga showed the French the Americans could actually win the war. The French king Louis sent soldiers and guns were sent overseas. With French help the Americans win the war at the Battle of Yorktown. The British, French and American signed The Treaty of Paris.
In 1785 Franklin left Paris. He journeyed to Philadelphia and was elected to be the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. In 1787 Benjamin Franklin and 54 other delegates met in Philadelphia to remake their failing government. By 1790 they had come up with a Constitution that was ratified by all the states. Benjamin Franklin devoted himself to the abolition of slavery. On April 17, 1790 he quietly died surrounded by his family and close friends. On April 28, 1790 20,000 people attended his funeral.
