Benjamin Franklin, American Genius

His Life and Ideas, with 21 Activities

By Brandon Marie Miller

Chicago Review Press Incorporated

Copyright © 2010 Brandon Marie Miller
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-55652-757-9

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
TIME LINE,
NOTE TO READERS,
PREFACE: THE RUNAWAY,
1 "AS A YOUNG GENIUS",
2 "A YOUNG MAN OF PROMISING PARTS",
3 "ANY OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE",
4 "A FIRM LOYALTY TO THE CROWN",
5 SNATCHING THE SCEPTER FROM TYRANTS,
6 "SOMETHING FIT TO END WITH",
GLOSSARY,
PLACES TO VISIT AND WEB RESOURCES,
FURTHER READING FOR KIDS,
SELECTED RESOURCES,
INDEX,

CHAPTER 1

"AS A YOUNG GENIUS"

IN OCTOBER 1683, Josiah Franklin, his wife Anne, and their three small children gazed hungrily for their first sight of land. They'd left England nine long weeks before on a cramped ship packed tight with 100 other passengers and crew. Twenty-five-year-old Josiah hoped not only to find religious freedom in New England but also to better support his growing family. In Massachusetts a man could live more cheaply and earn more for his hard work. In Boston the Franklins would build a new life.

Josiah labored as a silk and fabric dyer in England. But the Puritans of Boston fined people for wearing fancy clothes or for dressing above their place in society. To make a go of things in the New World, Josiah tackled a new trade — he became a tallow chandler, a maker of candles and soap.

On the corner of Milk Street and High Street, Josiah and Anne rented a two-and-a-half-story clapboard house that also served as Josiah's shop. The ground floor had one long room. To protect the main house from fire, the kitchen was out back in a separate building. Across the street stood South Church, the newest of Boston's three church congregations.

More children filled the Franklin house, but like many homes in colonial America, death stalked the family, too. A baby son died. Then Anne Franklin died, leaving behind a week-old son, who soon followed his mother to the grave. Left with five children to care for, a trade to work, and a shop and home to run, Josiah needed a new wife and helpmate. People remarried quickly in colonial America. Five months after Anne's death, Josiah married Abiah Folger. Her father, Peter Folger, had been an early settler of New England.

Over the next 12 years, Abiah and Josiah's family grew, though tragedy always waited on the doorstep. Two more little sons died, including 16-month-old Ebenezer, who drowned in the tallow shop's boiling vat. On January 17, 1706, Abiah gave birth to a new baby boy. They named him Benjamin after Josiah's brother.

Josiah bundled the new baby into blankets and carried him across the street to South Church. Puritan parents viewed life as a mighty struggle between God and the devil, and since death might snatch their infants at any moment, it was best to quickly baptize a newborn. If death came, the child's cleansed soul was ready for heaven.

But Ben did not die — he thrived, healthy and strong, in a home filled with brothers and sisters. Two more baby girls joined the Franklin mob. The last one, named Jane, became young Ben's favorite of all his siblings.

GROWING UP IN BOSTON

* Roughly 7,000 people called the thriving town of Boston home. As the third-largest shipping center in the whole British Empire, Boston's waterfront rocked with ships and swarming seamen loading and unloading cargo along the wharves. Josiah prospered enough to move his family from the tiny house, once crammed elbow-to-elbow with 14 children, to a larger home and shop in the center of town. By the time Ben was six, many of his elder siblings had left to make their own way in the world.

Rivers, bays, and inlets led to the sea, and young Ben Franklin played often "in and about" the water. He learned to swim and handle a boat. He fashioned flippers for his hands and feet to see if they helped him swim faster. And once, he used a kite to pull himself back and forth across a pond.

Ben's friends looked to him as their captain, even though sometimes he led them "into Scrapes." Once, after they'd trampled their favorite fishing spot into a muddy mess, Ben proposed building a proper wharf to fish from. One night he and his pals lugged away a heap of stones meant for a new house. The boys constructed their stone wharf, but the next morning all was discovered — the missing stones, the newly built wharf, and the boys' identities! "Several of us were corrected by our Fathers," remembered Franklin, "and tho' I pleaded the Usefulness of the Work, mine convinc'd me that nothing was useful which was not honest." In colonial America, corrections usually meant a spanking or whipping.

But young Ben did not always stir up trouble. The lad also possessed a passion for books and learning. Franklin later recalled, "I do not remember when I could not read." He read anything and everything he could lay his hands on. Josiah wondered if he had a scholar on his hands. Should he train Ben to serve as a minister, one of the most highly regarded and respected professions?

Josiah enrolled eight-year-old Ben in the Boston Latin School, the fast track for boys heading to the minister training ground of Harvard. Ben excelled, swiftly climbing to the head of the class. But Josiah pulled Ben from the school after less than a year, perhaps fearing the expense of a Harvard education. Or maybe he had a feeling Ben would not make a very good minister. The bright and curious boy sometimes offered opinions a bit strong for his family. One fall, as the Franklins salted and prepared their meat to store for the winter, Ben suggested they bless all the meat at once to save time saying grace before each meal. Perhaps not minister material!

Josiah instead sent Ben to a school that concentrated on reading, writing, and math, a subject Ben failed and "made no Progress in it." After a year Ben Franklin's formal school days ended, but he'd spent more time in school than most children in colonial America.

LEARNING A TRADE

* Most colonial boys' education centered on an apprenticeship. Parents signed papers binding their child in service to a craftsman or tradesman. In exchange for the child's work, the master taught him the skills needed for a future job. An apprentice belonged to his master and enjoyed few freedoms. The apprentice could not leave the master's home or business without permission. Older apprentices were forbidden to marry, gamble, or go out to taverns.

At age ten, Ben joined his father in the tallow shop. Tallow, the fat from cattle, was simmered for hours with lye, made from wood ash, to make soap and candles. Ben recalled his jobs "cutting Wick for the Candles, filling the Dipping Mold, & the Molds for cast Candles, attending the Shop, going of Errands" and soon hated the smelly, hot, tedious work.

Josiah feared unhappy Ben might run away and become a sailor, and he'd already had one son perish at sea. He explored other options with his son. He walked Ben about Boston, observing the many craftsmen and tradesmen at work — silversmiths, tanners, coopers (barrel makers), bricklayers, joiners (furniture makers), blacksmiths, and more. In the end Josiah apprenticed Ben in 1718 to one of his elder sons, Ben's half-brother James, who was a printer. James had Ben, now twelve years old, sign an unusually long apprenticeship of nine years.

The two brothers probably did not know each other very well. Older by nine years, James had...