Ben Franklin

It's hard to think about America, with out our founding fathers, more notably Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He would become a journalist, publisher, author, statesman, Diplomat and Inventor. He was the youngest son of Josiah Franklin a soap maker. At the time it was mandatory to attend church, but Ben skipped that to read and explore the world of science and politcs.

Josiah wanted Benjamin to enter the clergy, but instead was apprenticed off to his older brother James His

job entailed composing, typing, and distrubting pamphlets at only twelve years old. When Ben was fifteen

James founded his own newspaper The New England Courant, which was full of "articles, opinion piece

written by James's friends, advertisements, and news of ship schedules." Around this time Ben really

wanted to write for a newspaper, but no one would give him a chance. He took a risk and started writing

letters, signing them the name Silence Dogood, the letters were concerning the world and especially ho

women were treated. The letters were the talk of Boston and after sixteen letters Ben decided it was enough

and announced to everyone the he was authoring them.

In 1723 Franklin ran away from Boston, he took a boa up to Philadelphia. In Philadelphia he found his job as an apprentice printer. He was a big hit and the Pennsylvania governor wanted to set up his own shop, he sent him to England to buy printing equipment. Ben did go to London but instead of buying equipment he was stuck for working, as the governor did not come through. In 1726 Ben returned to Philadelphia "with the help of a merchant named Thomas Denham, who gave Franklin a position as clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper in Denham's merchant business." In 1729, Ben bought a newspaper called the Pennsylvania Gazette, he wrote commentaries