Boy From Boston Benjamin Franklin example essay topic

Introduction A printer, an inventor, a writer, a scientist, a diplomat, and a statesman. There is only one man that all this can describe. I am talking about no one other than Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin was well-known during the beginning of our great nation. He helped our nation begin. He was one of the framers of the Constitution and was a delegate along with others that were sent over to France to discuss the Treaty of Paris that ended the War for Independence.

You will read about how he grew up and how his contributions help us today. A Boy From Boston (1706-1718) Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17th, 1706 to Josiah and Abiah Folger Franklin. Ben was Josiah:' fifteenth child of seventeen children and Abiah:', Josiah:' second wife, eighth child. Once he was born, his father took him to the South Church to be baptized under the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Benjamin:' father was a maker and seller of candles and soap. Benjamin:' mother was the daughter of an indentured servant who had married her master, Peter Folger of Martha:' Vineyard and Nantucket.

(Wechsler, 14) Benjamin was popular with the boys from the neighborhood. He was often the leader among them and often led them into scrapes. He would go swimming, boating, and fishing with them. They all kept pets, made kites and flew them. And like all boys, he got in trouble with his parents and other grown-ups at times. One of his first investigations was how a ship moved.

One day Ben was flying his kite and looked over and saw his friends swimming in the pond. Since Ben wanted to do both, he tried something. He let out some string to his kite and walked into the pond. Once he was waist deep in the water, he laid on his back and had the kite fly over his head. The wind was so strong that the kite was gliding Franklin over the water. He exclaimed this friends that this was how a ship worked.

(Stein, 13) Benjamin was always thinking of new ideas. He thought of them in his dreams and made his dreams into reality the next day. But at the age of eight, he was sent to grammar school fore his father knew that he was the smartest of his children and had dreams of him being a clergyman. He was excellent in school. He would write papers that the instructors could not imagine them coming from a ten year old boy.

He was not the perfect schoolboy. He had difficulty in arithmetic and failed the subject miserably. Youth (1718-1727) After two years of grammar school, Josiah Franklin took young Benjamin out for he knew that he would never become a minister. Josiah then but Ben to work in helping him make them and deliver them to customers. This type of work was not suited for Benjamin so his father took it as his responsibility to find him a line of work that adapted to Benjamin:' likeness.

He finally found one. Benjamin was to become an apprentice to a printer. It was perfect fore Ben:' older brother, James, had opened up a print shop in town and Ben could easily become an assistant to his brother and Ben also loved reading. At 13 years of age, he was an apprentice to his brother James, a printer.

(Stein, 17-19) A Working Man Benjamin would spend the next thirty years as a printer. His main job was to operate the printing press. Often Ben would offer advice to his brother James but James felt he was losing control over his shop if he listened to the advice of an apprentice so he ignored Ben:' remarks. (Stein, 20) When Ben was not working, after hours, before the shop opened, and on Sunday, he was always reading and studying- alone and undisturbed. Realizing arithmetic was a necessity in life, he applied to study English grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and Socratic dialogue. (Wechsler, 18) In 1721, James Franklin began printing the first newspaper in the British Colonies.

It was called the New England Courant. This paper printed letters and writings that were from the people of Boston. Knowing his brother:' temper, Benjamin so wanted to write something for the newspaper. He wrote a letter of his own but disguised his penmanship and pretended to be a wise, middle-aged woman who called herself Silence Dogood. Every fortnight, he would slip a new letter underneath the door of the print shop.

(Stein, 21) But by this time, Silence Dogood became the talk of the town. His brother, James, was astounded by her writings. He even wished to meet her. Ben overheard that conversation with a colleague that he all of the sudden busted out laughing. (Stein, 21) Smallpox had become an epidemic in the New England colonies.

Boston:' minister of the word, Cotton Mather, had insisted that Boston try the inoculation that had worked in other cities. James Franklin totally disagreed with that fact that to cure a disease, you had to give someone a case of it. James Franklin printed a discriminatory message in his newspaper saying that Mather was out of his mind. The inoculation was tried in Boston and it seemed to work. (Tourtellot, 245) Mather then had the Boston provincial council arrest James Franklin and throw him in jail and he won.

James was arrested and thrown in jail and Benjamin was furious. He wrote another letter from Silence Dogood and expressed his anger about the arrest and about the lack of freedom of speech. James was then in jail for thirty days and was forbidden by the council for ever operating a newspaper in the New England corridor of the American Colonies. (Stein, 23-24) Because of James banishment from the newspaper business, Benjamin was named publisher of the New England Courant.

James time in jail made him more miserable and the fact that his brother was the famed Silence Dogood fueled the fire that burned inside of him. They often got in fights and that was it. Benjamin had had enough of Boston and wanted out. Thinking of running away was a bad idea fore he was still under the apprentice contract of his brother and if he ran away, he could be put in jail. Knowing that James would never take him to court and since he was banished from printing, Benranaway to New York City. When he arrived, there was not one bookshop in the entire city.

He found a small print shop but was in no need of extra hands. The owner had sons that could you help in Philadelphia so Franklin was sent there. (Stein, 24-26) Benjamin then decided to go to Philadelphia. He arranged to have his chest of clothes and books shipped to Philadelphia ahead of him. Benjamin boarded a ship that would take him to Philadelphia. The ship got caught in a storm off the New Jersey coast and almost sunk.

They then landed in Perth Amboy and Ben was out of luck. That ride diminished his longing to be a sailor. Ben wanted to get to the Delaware River in hopes of sailing down to get to Philadelphia but the only way was to walk. Benjamin started his long walk across the colony of New Jersey in freezing rain and only stopping to rest for the night.

He stopped in Burlington. He found a man who owned a sailboat and Ben left Burlington on his sailboat towards Philadelphia. (Stein, 26) Once off the boat, Ben went straight towards the print shop the man in New York told him about. When he walked in and was shocked to see that same man in there. Hiss on owned the shop and was sorry to disappoint Benjamin with the bad news of no vacant positions available. The older man then walked him over to a new printer in town and he hired him right away at a very high salary for he knew nothing about printing.

Ben one day wrote a letter to his sister and brother-in-law about his new life in Philadelphia. The day they received the letter, Governor William Keith of Pennsylvania had happened to be with them. He was amazed by that letter so well written by an eighteen year old boy. Governor Keith then went to Philadelphia to praise him and suggest Franklin open his own printing shop.

(Stein, 32) Benjamin returned to Boston in hopes that his father will lend him the money to open his own shop but he was declined. Once Governor Keith heard of his grievances, he ordered Ben to London where he could buy his own printing machine with a loan from Governor Keith himself. Ben was overjoyed. (Stein, 32) Once in London, Governor Keith failed to give him the money was left all alone in London.

He had to work his way back to Philadelphia. After a year and a half in London, he finally went back to Philadelphia and back to his old job at the Keimer Printshop. Hew as there for only two days before he quit because of an argument between Keimer and Franklin. When Ben walked out, so did his co-worker, Meredith, who was a drunkard. Meredith:' father saw how well of printers his son and Ben were and offered to give them a loan to open their own print shop.

Benjamin and Meredith opened their own the third print shop in Philadelphia, the others being Keimer, and Andrew Bradford, and competition was tight. Each print shop was fighting to get more jobs. When paper money became an issue in Pennsylvania, Ben:' print shop won the job to print all the paper money in Pennsylvania. (Stein, 35-38) His Famous Founding and Discoveries Benjamin Franklin was not only a good printer but a thinker. He founded a whole sort of things. He founded the first fire station that was called to fight fires.

He founded the first library that let patrons borrow books to read and do research. He invented bifocals to help people see and read better. His most famous discovery was the discover of electricity. The world knew of electricity but not one knew where to find it. They had seen electricity by the banging of two rocks together. On one stormy night, Benjamin Franklin took his kite outside and began to fly it.

To the kite he attached string and to the end of the string he placed a key and placed the key in a jar. When the kite was flying high, it was struck by lightning and the electric currents in the lightning went through the string to the key in the jar. The key started to glow and Franklin had discovered electricity. He then invented the lightning rod which was made of metal and placed on top of peoples homes. (Stein, 38-48) Benjamin:' Family When Benjamin first arrived in Philadelphia, he was seen walking down the street in torn clothes eating a loaf of bread. One girl saw him from her porch step and started laughing at him.

This girl:' name was Deborah Reed. When Benjamin got the job at the Keimer Printshop, he was arranged to stay at the Reed household. While living there, Benjamin developed a crush on that same girl that had laughed at him a few weeks back. Eventually, love blossomed and they got married in September of 1730. Later, they borne their first child, a son, and they named him William, who became Governor of New Jersey and political enemy of his father.

Then a daughter named Sarah and another boy named Francis who died at the age of 4 of smallpox. Both Ben and Deborah thought that their marriage was to be a influence on their children to live better lives. (Stein, 38) Benjamin Franklin: A Statesman During the 1740's, England was at war with Spain and France. Word had gotten out that privateers, pirates that were hired to capture other boats, had burned down NewCastle, Delaware; only a few miles away from Philadelphia.

Fear had struck the city and they had to do something. The city council was filled with Quakers. The Quakers we repeople who did not like to fight, even for self-defense, and refuse to put out money to for a militia. Benjamin Franklin then printed a pamphlet, called Plain Truth, that depicted a picture of what Philadelphia would look like if the privateers attacked them. The Quakers got scared and put out the money for a militia.

(Stein, 49) Benjamin Franklin played an important role in America:' War for Independence. He was appointed along with John Adams and John Jay to go over to France and help negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain and France to end the war. They finally came up with the Treaty of Paris. (Stein, 60-61) Once the war was over, he helped form the new nation, the United States of America.

He helped write the Articles of Confederation which later failed and was called back for the Constitutional Convention to frame the Constitution. He made many suggestions including naming the national bird the common turkey for they were very smart. Of course, they ignored that one that is why the Bald Eagle is our national bird and symbol today. Conclusion Benjamin Franklin is one of the most interesting men you will ever read about. He did some many things.

He was a master printer, an inventor, a writer, author, statesman and I could go on and on. All I can say is he did so much that still effects how we live our lives today. Before this research paper, I knew very little of all of Franklin:' accomplishments in his life. He wrote the first almanac, Poor Richard:' Almanac, and invented the Franklin stove and the list goes on and on. What I have learned in this paper makes me proud to be an American.

Bibliography

McElmeel, Sharron L. o... en Franklin on Government and Politics.? Library Talk, Sept / Oct. 2000: p 32.
Stein, R. Conrad. Benjamin Franklin: Inventor, Statesman, and Patriot. New York: Rand McNally & Company, 1972.
Tourtellot, Arthur Bern on. Benjamin Franklin: The Shaping Of Genius The Boston Years. New York: Tourtellot, 1977.
Wechsler, Louis K. Benjamin Franklin. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1976.