Benjamin Franklin Research Paper

Kaitlin Smith

Mrs. C. Robison

4th Period English IV

October 20th 2014

Benjamin Franklin: The Writer, the Scientist, the Legend.

Have you ever dreamed of achieving something bigger? Do you ever wonder if history will remember you long after you are gone from this world? I am not sure if Benjamin Franklin wondered these specific questions at any time in his life, and yet, he seemed to have lived the entirety of it as though he woke up to these questions every morning. One question I know he asked was this: “A man’s story is not told solely by a list of grand accomplishments, but rather by his smaller daily goods. What shall I do today?” This profound scientist has always been an idol of mine and an inspiration to so many others in the rebirth

Even compared to the monumental changes around him Ben thought so much more outside the box without even having to step outside of it. His accomplishments have changed the course of history and will continue to live on in and throughout our future.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17th 1706 as the youngest son of Josiah and Abiah (Folger) Franklin. He entered Boston Grammar School when he was eight yet only had one more year of formal education before he was apprenticed to his half-brother James as a printer at the age of twelve. James soon became the official publisher of the New England Courant in which Ben’s first writings; The Dogwood Papers were published before he was seventeen. In 1723 he left home and ventured out to Philadelphia to work as a printer. There, he met a man named William Keith who

By printing writings such as Pleasure and Pain, and Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity he was introduced to Deists and other intellectuals in the city. I am sure that exposure to these great thinkers must have inspired him to think bigger than he had ever been before challenged. It was still not for another year until he was able to return to Philadelphia, and by age 24 he had been appointed public printer for Pennsylvania. A year later he established the first circulating library in the United States. In 1743-44 he helped to start The American Philosophical Society by writing the founding document; A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge. These accomplishments brought different ways of thinking and researching to be so much more accessible and popular in America. As Ben put it “Tell me and I may forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

Two years before both retiring from printing and joining the Philadelphia militia in 1748, Franklin writes The Plain Truth a pamphlet arguing for better military preparedness in Philadelphia. In doing this not only did he prove his point, unlike most, he acted on his words and beliefs. The year following his joining the military Franklin presents his vision for education in a pamphlet titled Public Academy of Philadelphia, his