BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Benjamin Franklin was born as the fifteenth of seventeen children in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17th, 1706. After dropping out of school at the age of 10, Benjamin worked at his family’s candle and wax shop until his creativity had been diminished enough to where he needed to do something else. He worked in his brother James's print shop where his desire for politics was found. After leaving Boston and eventually ending up in Philadelphia, Franklin began to create a sense of individuality. He worked in multiple print shops, and also as a bookkeeper, currency cutter, and shopkeeper in a variety of places in both Philadelphia and London. Franklin became cultured and fell in love with the theater, swimming and socializing in coffee shops.
It was in the late 1720’s that Benjamin Franklin started to take an activist’s role in society while simultaneously starting his quest to better society. He wrote "A Modest Enquiry into The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," which was urging for for money to be placed into the American economy. He followed up on his writing by purchasing two print shops with his own money. Franklin’s inventive side came out in the 1740’s when he came up with the Franklin stove. Inventing was his true passion as he gave his highly successful printing company to concentrate on scientific discoveries. He is credited with the creation of often used lingo such as battery, charge, conductor and electrify after his famous kite and key experiment in 1752. Other notorious inventions by Franklin are the rocking chair, the catheter, the penny and bifocals.
Benjamin Franklin became involved in politics in 1748 when he became a member of Philadelphia’s city council. He would then continue his political career as a key member of the American Revolution. His writing was controversial about the rights of Americans and he was one of the first people calling for a unification of the colonies in 1754. Franklin was the first postmaster general of the colonies and was also one of the five people to draw up the Declaration of Independence. His most notorious contribution towards the American Revolution however was his negotiation of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war and granted the United States their freedom. His final public service act was as a contributing advisor towards the writing of the United States’ constitution in 1787.
Benjamin Franklin was an uneducated scholar, and no oxymoron could fit a person more aptly than this description does for Franklin. He was an inventor, statesman, author, publisher, scientist and diplomat. It could be argued that he is the most accomplished member of society in American history. He passed away on April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. He had a wife who was the love of his life in Deborah Read whom he married in 1730 and remained married until her death in 1776. He was also preceded in death by his son Francis, and was survived by his daughter Sarah and illegitimate son William.