Benjamin Franklin

Question 1

opening

Answer 1

• Writing to William
• summer of 1771 on vacation in a small town about 50 miles south of London
• wants to repeat and fix life but he can’t so he resolves to recording it and thanking god

Question 2

family ancestry

Answer 2

• youngest son of a youngest son for 5 generations
• named after uncle Benjamin
• Franklins have always been an active clan
• His father, Josiah Franklin, moved from England to America in 1682 with his wife and three children.
• He had four more children with that wife
• and ten more children with Abiah, whom Josiah married after his first wife died.
• Ben 15th of 17 children, was born in Boston on January 17, 1706.

Question 3

Bens early life

Answer 3

• was sent to grammar school instead of apprentice to go into the church
• rose to top of class and moved to another school to develop writing and math skills as well
• age 10 he was taken out to work with his father making candles and soap
• interested in the sea but prohibited from being a sailor, convinced his friend to make wharf out of stones from the quarry
• learned lesson on dishonesty

Question 4

Bens parents

Answer 4

• respected his father
• taught him skills of debate
• Had them buried in graveyard with other famous people
• disliked his fathers trade so josiah found him a job working at a printing place at age 12 for 8 years
• around same time acquired collins, a bookish lad
• Josiah helped ben with his writing through a newspaper, the specter, he mimicked method in the arrangement of thoughts

Question 5

Teen years

Answer 5

• vegetarianism
• skepticism towards religion
• effort to become more humble, speaking “with seeming diffidence”

Question 6

1720

Answer 6

• James started new England courant= second newspaper
• Franklin worked as a delivery boy
• worked hard at writing and anonymously published an article
• Fought with james
• Franklin took over the paper when James was jailed for political reasons
• Ben broke his contract and quit his job on bad terms and James told every other paper not to hire him
• Had to move to another city
• at age 17 he secretly went to New York
• Find no job so goes to Philidelphia to work for Andrew Bradford
• On his way to Phili he gets caught in a storm and saves the life of a drunken Dutchman who nearly drowned
• arrived in the city on October 6, 1723 in the Market Street Wharf

Question 7

When Franklin first gets to philidephia

Answer 7

• Stays with some Quakers
• Goes to find work with Bradford but he can only provide housing, not work
• Sets up Franklin with Keimer who runs a different printing shop
• Thinks both men are poor printers
• moves in with John read whose daughter Deborah, he would marry

Question 8

Franklin returns to Boston

Answer 8

• receives a letter from Robert Holmes, his brother-in-law, asking him to return
• Franklin wrote an elegant letter back explaining why he would not return to Boston, Holmes showed the letter to Pennsylvania Gov. William Keith , who is moved by Franklin’s strong writing skills
• Keith resolves to help Franklin set up a printing house, and he visits F ranklin at Keimer’s office to discuss such plan
• He will get money from the gov, but he also needs money from his father
• Franklin returns to Boston for several months but his father denies his request because he thinks he’s too young
• Josiah will help when he is 21
• James is still bitter over Ben’s resignation

Question 9

Franklin returns to Philidelphia after going to Boston to ask his dad for money

Answer 9

• First visits his brother in RI and nearly falls victim to two thieves posing as women
• Meets with Colins and gov of new york who likes his books
• Colins has become a drunk and Franklin loans him a lot of money on their trip to Phili
• Colins refuses to row on the boat and Franklin pushes him overboard leaving him humiliated
• Decides to work in Barbados and never sees or repays Franklin again

Question 10

Back in Phili after fight with Colins

Answer 10

• Tells Keith that his father refused to fund so Keith said he would do it himself
• First travels to England to make acquaintances in the book selling industry
• Meanwhile works with Keimer
• Attempts to Court Ms. Read but his upcoming trip won’t let him marry her
• Befriends 3 “book lovers” (Charles Osborne, Joseph Watson and James Ralph) hold poetry contests and debates

Question 11

On his way to England

Answer 11

• Meets a quaker named Mr. Denham
• arrive in London and franklin soon discovers that Keith did not write a letter of recommendation for Ben to make acquaintances with other printers
• ## Denham advises Franklin to get a job at Palmers, a famous printing place, they have fun and go broke many times and he forgets about Read and Ralph forgets about his wife and kids