buzz around town. In 1766, he made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons. [218], Although Franklin's parents had intended for him to have a career in the church,[18] Franklin as a young man adopted the Enlightenment religious belief in deism, that God's truths can be found entirely through nature and reason,[219] declaring, "I soon became a thorough Deist. He also studied ocean currents as they related to the time it took for mail to arrive from England to specific locations in the colonies. A short biography on Benjamin Franklin, who's been famously called the "first Citizen of the 18th Century." A man of many trades, Franklin is famous for "Poor Benjamin Franklin Biography. When he stopped attending church, Franklin wrote in his autobiography: ... Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. Franklin. He was the 15th child of seventeen children in the family. [125] Le Globe, created by professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, was watched by a vast crowd as it rose from the Champ de Mars (now the site of the Eiffel Tower). Franklin's father wanted him to attend school with the clergy but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. Benjamin Franklin was a prominent Founding Father and a statesman of the United States of America. Benjamin Franklin : a biography. That year, he partnered with John Bond in establishing the He was a very important person in the American Revolution and helped make the Thirteen Colonies one nation. Franklin, however, later became an outspoken critic of slavery. Their daughter, Sarah "Sally" Franklin, was born in 1743 and grew up to marry Richard Bache. After one or two useless trips to England, Franklin settled down to the printing business in Philadelphia. He made frequent trips abroad up until 1775, when the revolution was at hand. He organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. [189] However, as reported in 1836 by Prof. A. D. Bache of the University of Pennsylvania, the law of the effect of heat on the conduction of bodies otherwise non-conductors, for example, glass, could be attributed to Franklin. For the greater part of his appointment, Franklin lived in England (from 1757 to 1762, and again from 1764 to 1774)—about three-quarters of his term. This edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleau, which had denied non-Catholics civil status and the right to openly practice their faith. Student will have the opp He held an honorary position and seldom engaged in debate. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I. I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service. She was one of the colonial era's first woman printers. "[121] In 1781, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Following her death, Josiah married Abiah Folger on July 9, 1689, in the Old South Meeting House by Reverend Samuel Willard, and had ten children with her. [281], On April 12, 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated a 20-foot (6 m) tall marble statue in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute as the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial. In 1759, he visited Edinburgh with his son and later reported that he considered his six weeks in Scotland "six weeks of the densest happiness I have met with in any part of my life". While in England in 1768, he heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs: Why did it take British packet ships carrying mail several weeks longer to reach New York than it took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island? Benjamin Franklin was the center of the Junto, an elite group of intellectuals who were at the core of Philadelphia politics and cultural life for some time and who became the basis for the American Philosophical Society. Franklin was an advocate of free speech from an early age. The image of Franklin, the first postmaster general of the United States, occurs on the face of U.S. postage more than any other notable American save that of George Washington. At its first commencement, on May 17, 1757, seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one as Master of Arts. [277], A signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the U.S. Constitution, and the only person to sign all three documents, Franklin is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. [198], Franklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in 1728. [20], In 1751, Franklin and Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. [199] It did not mention many of the Puritan ideas regarding salvation, the divinity of Jesus, or indeed much religious dogma. Benjamin Franklin was born into a large family. In bestselling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin seems to turn to us . "If I have been", Franklin wrote to Cotton Mather's son seventy years later, "a useful citizen, the public owes the advantage of it to that book. Due to its licentious nature, the letter was not published in collections of Franklin's papers during the nineteenth century. Franklin's achievements are too varied to sum up easily. Franklin's image in the public sector grew quickly as the publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette.Franklin was one of America's first patriots as he spoke out publicly against the British taxation of the American . powerful people in the country. Philadelphia, PA 19104
In his letter Cooling by Evaporation, Franklin noted that, "One may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day. Franklin was a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a framer of both the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions. Franklin was an important statesman, signing . His forebears had . [104], In 1773, Franklin published two of his most celebrated pro-American satirical essays: "Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One", and "An Edict by the King of Prussia". "Franklin and Slavery." It contains many witty sayings that are still in circulation. "Poor Richard's Proverbs", adages from this almanac, such as "A penny saved is twopence dear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") and "Fish and visitors stink in three days", remain common quotations in the modern world. [177] It took many years for British sea captains to adopt Franklin's advice on navigating the current; once they did, they were able to trim two weeks from their sailing time. William was born February 22, 1730, and his mother's identity is unknown. In poor health during the signing of the US Constitution in 1787, he was rarely seen in public from then until his death. [61] In 1752, Franklin organized the Philadelphia Contributionship, the Colonies' first homeowner's insurance company. [147] In 1748, he constructed a multiple plate capacitor, that he called an "electrical battery" (not to be confused with Volta's pile) by placing eleven panes of glass sandwiched between lead plates, suspended with silk cords and connected by wires. Franklin published all of Whitefield's sermons and journals, thereby earning a lot of money and boosting the Great Awakening.[205]. Franklin spent a year at a different school and then . four. Despite his own moral lapses, Franklin saw himself as uniquely qualified to instruct Americans in morality. [89], The study of natural philosophy (referred today as science in general) drew him into overlapping circles of acquaintance. Reading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the first United States Postmaster General. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/timeline.htm, "Why Was Benjamin Franklin's Basement Filled with Skeletons? A. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, with mail sent out every week. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. Franklin writes, "... A certain quantity of heat will make some bodies good conductors, that will not otherwise conduct ..." and again, "... And water, though naturally a good conductor, will not conduct well when frozen into ice. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Mass., January 17, 1706, into a Puritan household. Franklin frequently wrote under pseudonyms. The paper focuses on the role of Franklin in the development of political theory, especially his elaborate use of satire in advancing political activism. [224][225], According to David Morgan,[226] Franklin was a proponent of religion in general. In 1728, Franklin set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith; the following year he became the publisher of a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. [141], Franklin's actual grave, however, as he specified in his final will, simply reads "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin". Whilst in London, Franklin became involved in radical politics. Franklin feared that the American colonies could eventually come to the same level of poverty if the regulations and laws continued to apply to them. Benjamin Franklin. He worked with the London glassblower Charles James to create it, and instruments based on his mechanical version soon found their way to other parts of Europe. [20], On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a three-member committee composed of Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams to design the Great Seal of the United States. [38], In 1730 or 1731, Franklin was initiated into the local Masonic lodge. [157] Joseph Priestley published an account with additional details in his 1767 History and Present Status of Electricity. It was started by Franklin in 1771 in England, has been written for many years, but has remained unfinished. An ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings, he seems made of flesh rather than of marble. The report of the committee, providing for the appointment of a postmaster general for the 13 American colonies, was considered by the Continental Congress on July 25 and 26. From 1948 to 1963, Franklin's portrait was on the half-dollar. While in Paris, both as a visitor and later as ambassador, he visited the famous Café de la Régence, which France's strongest players made their regular meeting place.