Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-
1790)
Printer, librarian, inventor, and

statesman, one of the Founding
Fathers
 „They who can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
(1775)
Biography
 1706 January 17: Born in Boston, the
youngest son of Josiah and Abiah
(Folger) Franklin. They had sixteen
children.
 1716: His schooling ended when he was
ten. He heard Increase Mather preach.
 1717: Begins reading Plutarch, Defoe,
and Cotton Mather.
 1718: Apprenticed to his brother James,
a printer.
 Blackbeard the Pirate is captured;
Franklin writes a ballad on the occasion.
 1720: Moved away from home into a
boarding house.
 Stopped attending church so he could
use Sunday to study.
 1721: Brother James Franklin starts
publishing The New England Courant.
 Smallpox epidemic in Boston and controversy
over vaccination: Becomes "a thorough
Deist."
 1722: Becomes a vegetarian (in part he is
motivated by a distaste for flesh, but also
because he can save money and buy more
books).
The New-England Courant (1721)
 The first truly independent
newspaper in the colonies
 Franklin adopted the
pseudonym of "Silence
Dogood", a middle-aged widow.
Mrs. Dogood's letters were
published, and became a
subject of conversation around
town. (15 years old.)
 Franklin was an advocate of
free speech from an early age.
 1723: Takes over the publishing of the
Courant after brother James is jailed due to
"contempt" charges.
 (Sept.) Runs away from apprenticeship, goes
to New York and then to Philadelphia, where
he gains employment as a printer.
 Takes lodging with John Read whose
daughter Deborah will become Franklin's wife
in 1730.
 1724: Under encouragement from
Pennsylvania Governor William Keith travels
to London in order buy printing equipment.
Remains in London working as a printer in
several printing shops.
 1726: returns to Philadelphia. Franklin works
as a bookkeeper and shopkeeper in a store
which sells imported clothes and hardware.
 It is in 1727 or 1728 that Franklin has an
affair with a woman that results in the birth
of his illegitimate son William in 1728 or 29.
 1731: Joins the St. Johns Freemasons Lodge.
 Drew up the Library Company's articles of
association on July 1st. The Library Company
is the first lending library in the country,
though it is still private.
 1732: Birth of his son Francis Folger.
 In May, Franklin started printing
America's first German-language
newspaper, Philadelphische Zeitung,
which soon failed.
 Publishes the first edition of
Poor Richard's Almanack
on December 28.
 1735: Brother James Franklin dies;
Benjamin sends his widow 500 copies of
Poor Richard for free so she can make
money by selling them.
 1736: Son Francis (Franky) Folger dies
at age 4 of smallpox.
 1737: Appointed Postmaster of
Philadelphia.
 1741: Advertises the
"Franklin Stove.”
 1743: Comes out with "A Proposal for
Promoting Useful Knowledge" (the
founding document of the prototype of
the American Philosophical Society).
 1751: Letters on electricity published in
London by Peter Collinson. (Lightning
rod)
 1753: Received honorary degrees from
Harvard and Yale.
 1754: Proposes plan of colonial union at
Albany Congress.
 1757-62: In England as agent for
Pennsylvania Assembly, Massachusetts,
Georgia, New Jersey.
 1771-72: Begins writing his
Autobiography.
 1775: Elected as a Pennsylvania
delegate of Pennsylvania to 2nd
Continental Congress;
 1779-81: Appointed to negotiate peace
treaty with England.

 1787: Signs the United States Constitution.
 1789: Writes an anti-slavery treatise.
 He becomes president of the Society for
Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
 1790: April 17, dies in Philadelphia at the age
of 84. 20,000 mourners attend his funeral at
Philadelphia's Christ Church Burial Ground.
Poor Richard's Almanack
 (sometimes Almanac) was a yearly almanac
published by Benjamin Franklin, who adopted
the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" or "Richard
Saunders" for the purpose of this work in the
title. It appeared continuously from 1732 to
1757. The almanac was a best seller in the
American colonies; print runs typically ran to
10,000 per year.
The Almanack
 It contained the typical calendar,
weather, poems, and astronomical and
astrological information that an almanac
of the period contained.
 It is chiefly remembered, however, for
being a repository of Franklin's
aphorisms and proverbs.
The Way to Wealth, 1757
 During the final year he published The
Way to Wealth, a collection of maxims
from the almanac that remains widely-
read today.

Benjamin Franklin

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Benjamin Franklin

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Benjamin Franklin

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Benjamin Franklin (1706-

Printer, librarian, inventor, and

You might also like