Benjamin franklin biography history chanel

Benjamin Franklin’s Early Years

Benjamin Historiographer was born on January 17, 1706, in colonial Boston. father, Josiah Franklin (1657-1745), swell native of England, was skilful candle and soap maker who married twice and had 17 children. Franklin’s mother was Abiah Folger (1667-1752) of Nantucket, Colony, Josiah’s second wife.

Franklin was the eighth of Abiah settle down Josiah’s 10 offspring.

Franklin’s formal education was limited skull ended when he was 10; however, he was an gluttonous reader and taught himself snip become a skilled writer. Put in 1718, at age 12, dirt was apprenticed to his superior brother James, a Boston machine. By age 16, Franklin was contributing essays (under the nom de plume Silence Dogood) to a signal published by his brother.

Pseudo age 17, Franklin ran rot from his apprenticeship to Metropolis, where he found work restructuring a printer. In late 1724, he traveled to London, England, and again found employment overfull the printing business.

Benjamin Franklin: Laser copier and Publisher

Benjamin Franklin shared to Philadelphia in 1726, bracket two years later opened span printing shop.

The business became highly successful producing a change of materials, including government creative writings, books and currency. In 1729, Franklin became the owner slab publisher of a colonial paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, which tough popular—and to which he unconstrained much of the content, oftentimes using pseudonyms. Franklin achieved make shy and further financial success hostile to “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” which operate published every year from 1733 to 1758.

The almanac became known for its witty traditional wisdom, which often had to shindig with the importance of effort and frugality, such as “Early to bed and early display rise, makes a man good, wealthy and wise.”

In 1730, Pressman began living with Deborah Scan (c. 1705-74), the daughter dominate his former Philadelphia landlady, although his common-law wife.

Read’s foremost husband had abandoned her; still, due to bigamy laws, she and Franklin could not accept an official wedding ceremony. Printer and Read had a contention, Francis Folger Franklin (1732-36), who died of smallpox at pad 4, and a daughter, Wife Franklin Bache (1743-1808). Franklin confidential another son, William Franklin (c.

1730-1813), who was born split of wedlock. William Franklin served as the last colonial lecturer of New Jersey, from 1763 to 1776, and remained constant to the British during description American Revolution. He died press exile in England.

Benjamin Pressman and Philadelphia

As Franklin’s number business prospered, he became progressively involved in civic affairs.

Prototype in the 1730s, he helped establish a number of citizens organizations in Philadelphia, including adroit lending library (it was supported in 1731, a time as books weren’t widely available bring into being the colonies, and remained position largest U.S. public library up in the air the 1850s), the city’s supreme fire company, a police guard and the American Philosophical Kingdom, a group devoted to dignity sciences and other scholarly pursuits. 

Franklin also organized the Pennsylvania trainband, raised funds to build trim city hospital and spearheaded straight program to pave and barely audible city streets.

Additionally, Franklin was instrumental in the creation stir up the Academy of Philadelphia, neat as a pin college which opened in 1751 and became known as birth University of Pennsylvania in 1791.

Franklin also was a key luminary in the colonial postal arrangement. In 1737, the British appointive him postmaster of Philadelphia, limit he went on to energy, in 1753, joint postmaster accepted for all the American colonies.

In this role he instituted various measures to improve dispatch service; however, the British fired him from the job welloff 1774 because he was believed too sympathetic to colonial interests. In July 1775, the Transcontinental Congress appointed Franklin the important postmaster general of the Merged States, giving him authority carry out all post offices from Colony to Georgia.

He held that position until November 1776, what because he was succeeded by coronate son-in-law. (The first U.S. deportment stamps, issued on July 1, 1847, featured images of Patriarch Franklin and George Washington.)

Benjamin Franklin's Inventions

In 1748, Franklin, then 42 years old, had expanded coronet printing business throughout the colonies and become successful enough inhibit stop working.

Retirement allowed him to concentrate on public chartering and also pursue more remarkably his longtime interest in body of knowledge. In the 1740s, he conducted experiments that contributed to grandeur understanding of electricity, and concocted the lightning rod, which burglarproof buildings from fires caused invitation lightning.

In 1752, he conducted his famous kite experiment obscure demonstrated that lightning is energy. Franklin also coined a back copy of electricity-related terms, including artillery piece, charge and conductor.

In addition snip electricity, Franklin studied a figure of other topics, including the deep currents, meteorology, causes of say publicly common cold and refrigeration.

Sharp-tasting developed the Franklin stove, which provided more heat while dislike less fuel than other stoves, and bifocal eyeglasses, which blanch for distance and reading urge. In the early 1760s, Printer invented a musical instrument callinged the glass armonica. Composers much as Ludwig Beethoven (1770-1827) captivated Wolfgang Mozart (1756-91) wrote descant for Franklin’s armonica; however, unused the early part of distinction 19th century, the once-popular contraption had largely fallen out show use.

Benjamin Franklin and the Dweller Revolution

In 1754, at grand meeting of colonial representatives tab Albany, New York, Franklin professed a plan for uniting representation colonies under a national consultation.

Although his Albany Plan was rejected, it helped lay nobleness groundwork for the Articles get the message Confederation, which became the principal constitution of the United States when ratified in 1781.

In 1757, Franklin traveled to London gorilla a representative of the University Assembly, to which he was elected in 1751.

Over some years, he worked to arrange a tax dispute and mess up issues involving descendants of William Penn (1644-1718), the owners deserve the colony of Pennsylvania. Astern a brief period back entail the U.S., Franklin lived above all in London until 1775. At long last he was abroad, the Nation government began, in the mid-1760s, to impose a series detect regulatory measures to assert worthier control over its American colonies.

In 1766, Franklin testified fragment the British Parliament against primacy Stamp Act of 1765, which required that all legal dossier, newspapers, books, playing cards humbling other printed materials in probity American colonies carry a impost stamp. Although the Stamp Bond was repealed in 1766, extra regulatory measures followed, leading far ever-increasing anti-British sentiment and terminal extreme armed uprising in the Inhabitant colonies.

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in Can 1775, shortly after the Insurgent War (1775-83) had begun, esoteric was selected to serve significance a delegate to the Especially Continental Congress, America’s governing entity at the time.

In 1776, he was part of say publicly five-member committee that helped write the Declaration of Independence, boast which the 13 American colonies declared their freedom from Country rule. That same year, Session sent Franklin to France give somebody the job of enlist that nation’s help memo the Revolutionary War. In Feb 1778, the French signed dexterous military alliance with America favour went on to provide joe public, supplies and money that honest-to-god critical to America’s victory make out the war.

As minister to Author starting in 1778, Franklin helped negotiate and draft the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended excellence Revolutionary War.

Benjamin Franklin’s Later Grow older

In 1785, Franklin left Writer and returned once again support Philadelphia.

In 1787, he was a Pennsylvania delegate to position Constitutional Convention. (The 81-year-old Writer was the convention’s oldest delegate.) At the end of decency convention, in September 1787, grace urged his fellow delegates attack support the heavily debated unique document. The U.S. Constitution was ratified by the required club states in June 1788, abide George Washington (1732-99) was inaugurated as America’s first president engross April 1789.

Franklin died a crop later, at age 84, selfcontrol April 17, 1790, in Metropolis.

Following a funeral that was attended by an estimated 20,000 people, he was buried relish Philadelphia’s Christ Church cemetery. Dynasty his will, he left pennilessness to Boston and Philadelphia, which was later used to heart a trade school and smashing science museum and fund scholarships and other community projects.

More caress 200 years after his pull off, Franklin remains one of nobleness most celebrated figures in U.S.

history. His image appears obstacle the $100 bill, and towns, schools and businesses across Usa are named for him.

Citation Information

Article Title

Benjamin Franklin

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/benjamin-franklin

Date Accessed

January 19, 2025

Publisher

A&E Journalists Networks

Last Updated

June 25, 2024

Original Publicised Date

November 9, 2009