Benjamin Franklin
Founding father Benjamin Franklin was a diplomat, inventor, and he is the face of the $100 bill. Before you read this CLICK HERE for your free blog companion.
Early Life
Benjamin was born January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was 1 of 17 kids. Yikes. His father Josiah immigrated from England. He was a candle maker and soap maker. Franklin’s formal education ended at age 10 but he was an inquisitive boy and read everything he could get his hands on. He briefly served as an apprentice in his fathers shop before joining his brother James’ print shop and newspaper as an apprentice. Well Benjamin was actually an indentured servant. He was in charge of setting the letters for printing and selling newspapers door to door. However, Benjamin wanted to write. James was abusive toward Benjamin and would not let him write in the paper. James was most likely jealous and threatened by Benjamin's talent.
Since James wouldn’t allow Benjamin to write in the newspaper, Benjamin came up with a way of tricking his brother. He began slipping articles under the door of his brother’s shop. They were written under the pseudonym of Silence Dogood. James liked them, not knowing they were written by his younger brother. 14 Silence Dogood letters were published in the newspaper in 1722. James was upset with his brother when he discovered that he was Silence Dogood.
James was actually a very early proponent of free speech and was thrown in jail for a couple of weeks after publishing unflattering articles and cartoons about the colonial government and governor. While he was in jail, Benjamin kept the newspaper going. Part of the terms of James’ release was that he would no longer publish the paper. At this time the newspaper was published under Benjamin’s name. James was ungrateful for Benjamin keeping the newspaper going in his absence and the new arrangement ended the indenture. Benjamin took advantage of this and fled from his brother. He spent time in New York and London before moving permanently to Philadelphia.
Life in Philadelphia
Benjamin Franklin was still very young and didn’t really have any money. He worked in print shops and as a clerk. He boarded in the house of John and Sarah Read. This is where he met the girl who would become his wife, Deborah. Philadelphia is where Franklin began to flourish and prosper. He set up his own printing house and became the editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette. He also began printing other works like religious texts and his famous Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Poor Richard's Almanac was wildly popular in the American Colonies. It contained weather forecasts, crop information, witty one liners like“A friend in need is a friend indeed!” and “Fish and Visitors stink in 3 days.” The almanac also included stories about characters that would continue year after year, convincing readers to buy it each year so they would know what happened to their favorite characters.
Scientific Discoveries and Inventions
Benjamin Franklin’s success as a printer allowed him time to pursue other interests like inventing, science experiments, and public service. He is credited with many inventions. Did you know that he invented bifocal glasses? You’ll care about that when you get older. He also invented the Franklin stove which was much more efficient than other stoves or heaters of the day providing more heat with less smoke. Some even credit him with inventing the rocking chair. The glass armonica was a musical instrument that Franklin invented. Mozart and Beethoven even composed works for the glass armonica.
What do Olympic gold medal winners Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin have in common with Benjamin Franklin? They are all members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Yep, you heard that right, Benjamin Franklin is in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. As a boy, he developed hand paddles and flippers for swimming. He also used a kite to pull him across the water in an early form of water skiing or windsurfing. He was a proponent of teaching children to swim and water safety.
Through his scientific experimentations he made several key discoveries. He was very interested in understanding more about electricity. He even invented the electrical terms we still use today like battery, charge, and conductor. It was through experiments like the famous kite experiment that he discovered that lightning was electricity. This led him to invent the lighting rod which has saved countless lives and buildings from fire caused by lighting.
Benjamin Franklin is also the first person to map the gulf stream. Although the first person to ever write about it was Ponce de León in the 1500’s, Franklin was the first to map it. The gulf stream is basically a river in the Atlantic Ocean that runs the Gulf of Mexico, around the southern tip of Florida, up the east coast of the United States, and then northeast towards northwest Europe. Because of this current, it took ships sailing from Europe to America weeks longer than it took to sail from America to Europe. Once the Gulf Stream was understood, it led to improved travel times across the Atlantic Ocean. It also gave us a better understanding of weather patterns and Hurricane paths.
Community and Public Service
Improving the community and lives of the people of Philadelphia was a priority of Benjamin Franklin and that's why he started the first public lending library in America. It opened in 1731 and was called the Library Company of Philadelphia. Members paid a subscription to have access to the library. This created a way for people to pool their money together so that they could all have access to more books.
Benjamin Franklin was also the first president of the Academy and College of Philadelphia. It originally was a secondary school, teaching the basics of writing, reading, and arithmetic to both paying and non paying students. The school would later merge with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to form what we now know as the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1754 at the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the British colonies held a congress in Albany, New York to discuss being a more united front against their common enemies. It was at this congress that Benjamin Franklin presented the Albany Plan to unite the colonies. He ran a cartoon of his famous “Join or Die Snake” in his newspaper to encourage the colonies to attend the conference. His plan was to have a unified government for the colonies with a President appointed by the King. There would also be a Grand Council with delegates from each colony proportional to its size. The purpose of this unification was to raise an army and navy, negotiate treaties with Native Americans, coordinate intercolony commerce, and impose taxes. The plan was rejected but it laid the groundwork for the Articles of Confederation which would be the initial framework of the United States government.
Franklin also played a pivotal role in the American postal system. He began serving as the postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and later became Joint Postmaster General of the American colonies in 1753. However, he was relieved of duties in 1774 because the British felt he had sympathy towards independence. In 1775 he was appointed by the continental congress as the first Postmaster General of the United States of America.
In 1757 Benjamin Franklin was appointed as the Colony of Pennsylvania’s agent to London. He was loyal to the crown and wanted to help heal the relationship between the colonies and England. He would serve in London for much of the next 20 years. It was over this period of time that he would argue on the colonies behalf to help overturn the stamp act. He would go on to also represent Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia in London. By the 1770’s Franklin was becoming more sympathetic to the cause of independence for the colonies. He would return to America in 1775 a patriot.
Benjamin Franklin was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the 2nd Continental Congress. In 1776 Franklin was among 5 men including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman to write the Declaration of Independence. Later that same year he was sent to Paris as the first United States ambassador to France. Franklin’s work secured France’s support for the United States in their fight for freedom from Great Britain. Without it, America would not have won the war. Franklin stayed in Francer and negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that ended the war. 
During his time in France, Franklin became a celebrity and fashion icon. The French thought of America as a rustic, backwoods, outpost and Franklin played the part. He always wore a fur hat and dressed very plainly. French society was obsessed with Franklin. French women even started wearing wigs that imitated his fur hat. 
Later Years
After spending much of his life in Europe, Franklin returned to America in 1785. He served as the President of Pennsylvania for several years and served in the constitutional Convention in 1787. His role at the convention was more of mediator. He helped delegates compromise on a path forward for the country. After signing the constitution, Benjamin Franklin became the only founder to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris ending the war with Great Britain, and the constitution. After signing the constitution, someone asked what kind of government they had created and Franklin responded “A republic, if you can keep it”. 
It is documented that Benjamin Franklin owned slaves in his life. There were also advertisements in his newspaper for the sale of slaves. Later in his life, however, Franklin became an abolitionist. That means that he preferred and argued to abolish slavery. He would go on to become the president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and submit an antislavery petition to the United States Congress in 1790. He even included a provision in his will that his daughter and son-in-law would have to release their slaves in order to receive their inheritance.
There is no doubt about the impact that Franklin had on the United States and the world. He was a renaissance man contributing to the worlds of science and music all the while helping to shape the world politically. Benjamin Franklin died at the age of 84 on April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams had this to say “The essence of the whole will be that Dr Franklin’s electric rod smote the earth and out sprang General Washington. Then Franklin electrified him, and thence forward those two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, Legislations, and War."
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