Ben Franklin: Early Life Essay -- Essays Papers

Ben Franklin Early Life In his many careers as a printer, moralist, essayist, civic leader, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, and philosopher, for later generations of Americans he became both a spokesman and a model for the topic character. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Jan. 17, 1706, into a religious Puritan household. His father, Josiah, was a candlemaker and a skillful mechanic. His mother, Abiah Bens parents raised thirteen children--the survivors of Josiahs seventeen children by two wives (1).Printer & WriterFranklin left school at ten years old when he was pressed into his fathers trade. At dozen Ben was apprenticed to his half brother James, a printer of The New England Courant. He generally absorbed the values and philosophy of the English Enlightenment. At the age of 16, Franklin wrote slightly pieces for the Courant signed Silence Dogood, in which he parodied the Boston authorities and society (3). At one point James Franklin was imprisoned for his liberal statements, and gum benjamin carried on the paper himself. Having thus learned to resist oppression, Benjamin refused to suffer his brothers own domineering qualities and in 1723 ran away to Philadelphia (1).Soon Franklin found a job as a printer. After a year he went to England, where he became a master printer, sowed some wild oats, amazed the locals with his swimming feats, and lived among inspiring writers of London. By 1726 Franklin was exhausting of London (1). He considered becoming an itinerant teacher of swimming, but when a Quaker merchant by the name of Thomas Denham offered him a clerkship in his memory in Philadelphia, he decided to return home (5). Returning to Philadelphia in 1726, he soon owned a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and began to print Poor Richards Almanac. In the Pennsylvania Gazette, a citizen asked editor Franklin the following question If A found out that his neighbor B was sleeping with his wife, was he justified in congress Bs wife, and persuading her to seek a little revenge with A? The editors response If an ass kicks me, should I kick him again? (4) His business expanded further when he contract to do the public printing of the province, and established partnerships with printers in other colonies. He also operated a bookshop and became clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly and postmaster of Philadelp... ...eek. These virtues include temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity, and humility. The memoir is not the full story of Franklins life. It terminates approximately in his fifty-third year, before he became Americas greatest diplomat. Poor Richard was an uneducated but experient homespun philosopher, created and edited by Ben Franklin from 1732-1757. Although Poor Richard of the early almanacs was a dim-witted and foolish astronomer, a round character soon replaced him who was a rich source of prudent and clever aphorisms on the value of economy, hard work, and the simple life.WORKS CITED1. Benjamin Franklin. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 1998 ed. CD-ROM. Danbury Grolier Interactive Inc., 1998. 2. Franklin, Benjamin The Autobiography and other writings of Benjamin Franklin. Donovan, Frank, ed. New York Dodd, Mead & Company, 1963. 3. Ketcham, Ralph Benjamin Franklin. Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia. Vol.8. New York Lexicon Publications Inc., 1989. 282-284.4. http//library.advanced.org/22254/home.htm5. http//www-lj.eb.com/