Benjamin Franklin: A Founding Father, A Renaissance Man

A Founding Father, a Renaissance Man, and a jack of all trades. Benjamin Franklin was truly one of the greatest Americans during the 18th century. He was one of the framers of the Constitution, and helped draft the Declaration of Independence and end the Revolutionary War. He also invented many things and made many scientific discoveries. Benjamin Franklin’s life was filled with many great accomplishments, which led to him becoming one of the most influential and talented people during American History.

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 7th, 1706 in the Massachusetts colony. He was his mother’s eighth child and his father’s fifteenth. He was the youngest boy in the family, but he did have two younger sisters. When he wasn’t helping out with his father’s candle and soap shop or chores around the house, Benjamin spent his free time swimming in the nearby Mill Pond and journeying around the colony. He was able to read from a very early age, as he states in his autobiography

that “My early readiness in learning to read...must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read” (Franklin 3). Because of this, his father decided to send him to the Boston Grammar School to take full advantage of his skills. However, his education lasted for only one year, and afterwards was put to work full-time in his father’s soap and candle shop.
During his time working under his father, he continued to read avidly and learned many scientific and mathematical concepts, as well as dabbling in some languages being French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. Noticing all the books Ben was consuming, his father persuaded him to work as an apprentice to his older brother James as a printer. It took his father a lot of persuading, because Ben had the dream of a life at sea. At twelve years old, Ben agreed to be an apprentice for James until the age of 21. He quickly learned the skills of being a printer and proved to be very useful to James, helping print and deliver the newspapers. Some argue he even surpassed him. But Ben still had his dream of wanting to go to sea.
When Ben was fifteen years old, James started to print a newspaper called the New England Courant. In this segment, James criticized the government and leaders of Boston. One time James made an article insulting religious leaders, which got him thrown in jail. He wanted to continue writing, so James’s solution was to “let it be printed for the future under the name of Benjamin Franklin” and in order to “avoid the censure of the Assembly, that might fall on him as still printing it by his apprentice,” he decided that “my old indenture should be return'd to me, with a full discharge on the back of it, to be shown on occasion, but to secure to him the benefit of my service, I was to sign new indentures for the remainder of the term, which were to be kept private” (Franklin 9). Under his own name, Ben made the papers more popular. Once James was released, Ben told him that he could manage on his own. James couldn’t do anything about it, since he didn’t want the secret deals to go public. The next morning he stole a boat and sailed to Philadelphia.
At seventeen, starting a new life in a big city like Philadelphia would be hard for any average person. However, Ben had tons of street and book knowledge that he used to make a living for the next 25 years. During this time, he had a job as a printer where he published The Pennsylvania Gazette, which was very successful. He also met and married Deborah Read, and started a family with her. Franklin had three kids: William, Francis, and Sarah. Later, starting in 1732, Benjamin published Poor Richard’s Almanac, which was “both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand that I reaped considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand” (Franklin 45). He continued these almanacs yearly throughout his life until 1758 when he published the last one. Ben was very good at printing, as shown by these almanacs, but also the newspaper he wrote previously.
As a scientist, Benjamin Franklin made a very important discovery that opened the door for many other scientists to build off of. He discovered many things about electricity that weren't known before. He discovered that lightning and electricity were the same thing, and that lightning contained a lot of it. He also discovered that electricity was like a liquid, because it always flowed to somewhere else and was never destroyed. This became the basis for the Single Fluid Theory, which stated that electricity was a liquid. These discoveries were made by a very famous and well-known experiment Franklin conducted: the kite experiment. One stormy night, Ben and his son flew a kite into the storm with a small metal rod at the top and a key tied to the bottom. He touched the key, and felt a short jolt of electricity. He used this knowledge to conduct many other tests about electricity, which led to later inventions by other people.
Benjamin Franklin also invented multiple things during his life.

One of these inventions were bifocals, a special pair of glasses that had different kinds of lenses on the top and bottom. The top was for long-distance, and the bottom was for short-distance. The glasses, he said, ¨make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were¨ (USHistory.org). Working off his experience with electricity, he also invented the lightning rod, which was used to prevent lightning bolts from damaging nearby structures by providing the lightning with a safe path to the ground. Some other things he made were the Franklin stove, which was an efficient heater, the armonica, a glass instrument with rings that made clean notes, and swim fins, which enabled people to swim faster. Franklin was very shrewd and modest with his inventions, because he “...invented to help improve society,(so) he refused to take out a patent” (USHistory.org). This shows that he wanted to see his colony thrive and become the best it could

become.
As previously stated, Franklin wanted to see his community thrive and helped it out a lot. As a civil worker he did many things that helped the community. He was angered by the bad service of the postal service, and in 1737 became the head postmaster of Philadelphia, making it much more efficient. And, in 1753 was promoted to the postmaster of all the colonies. He also created the Library Company of Philadelphia, in order to let people read free of charge, which still exists today. With the help of the community, he raised money to create the Pennsylvania Hospital and repaved many neglected roads in the colony. In order to help with education, he established the American Philosophical Society and the University of Pennsylvania. All of these facilities greatly increased community life and made Philadelphia a very advanced colony.
When it came to Britain and all of the tension between them and America, Franklin originally believed that England was a great country, and wanted to stay loyal to them. However, after the Stamp Act of 1765, he decided to start to work for independence from Britain. He also exposed the letters sent by Thomas Hutchinson, who was pretending to be on the side of the colonies but was actually working for Britain. This made the tension between Britain and America greater. However, his son, William, was a dedicated Loyalist, which made a split in their relationship forever. He helped write the Declaration of Independence and was one of the signers of it. One of the most important things he did was persuade an alliance with France. When visiting France, he had a hard time because France did not want to go to war with Britain. However, when America won the battle at Saratoga against John Burgoyne’s army, the French were impressed and signed a Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778. Later, in 1783, he signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. This was one of the most important tasks in ending the Revolutionary War, and Franklin was successful.
After the war ended, Franklin was in his late 70s. Even in his old age, he was one of the framers of the constitution and helped resolve issues framers had on how to word the Constitution. He served as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He stated in his speech at the convention, “Thus, I consent, sir, to this constitution, because I expect no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best” (Franklin). He was the oldest delegate at the convention. Three years later, Franklin died on April 17th, 1790. His funeral was attended by over 20,000 people, to honor all he had done for America.
All of Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments led to him being one of the most important historical figures in American History. His accomplishments in printing entertained and taught people many things. His inventions were amazing in their time and some are even still used today. His scientific discoveries about electricity helped many others invent great things based off his ideas. The things he did for his community were so great and it made Philadelphia one of the most advanced colonies. Being able to successfully persuade France to sign the alliance was a major step in winning the Revolutionary War. Helping frame the Constitution made America the way it is today. The amount of things Franklin did in his life is insane, and all the way through the end of his life he was helping out the community. Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant, kind, clever, and enthusiastic American who helped shape America to be the way it is today.