If you live in the United States, there is no escape from Benjamin Franklin's legacy. His face is still printed on hundreds of notes. The theories of electricity that he contributed are still in use today. His witty words are polished over inspiring Pinterest posts. There is even speculation that he was part of a secret society during his life. You can read more about it here ..
He made positive contributions in many fields throughout his life - including science, politics and culture. But there may not be a field that earns more than literature. Franklin was many things - an inventor, diplomat, writer and publisher. Yet his first love was always the written word. In the end, throughout his life, it was through writing that he was able to make such an impact.
Who was Benjamin Franklin?
This section will briefly cover the most important events in Benjamin Franklin's life. It will also cover the context of the political and cultural world to which he regularly contributed.
Early life
Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706. He was the 10 th son of 17 children. His father, Josiah, produced soap and candles. This was considered to be the lowest of handicrafts at that time.
Franklin was an early avid reader. He spent one year at the grammar school and another with a private tutor. However, he completed his formal education at the age of 10, due to the fact that his father was unable to pay for his studies. As a 12-year-old, Josiah Franklin taught printing in his big brother James. Thus began Franklin's lifelong attachment to and love of trade.
Although James often beat and abused Franklin, the latter learned a lot about the publishing industry under the former's guidance. Franklin achieved mastery in the writing trade between 1718 and 1723. During the same period he read greedily and taught himself the art of writing.
Then the beginning of Franklin's writing career
Franklin's first love was poetry. However, he became discouraged by what he thought was the low quality he had. He quickly gave it up in favor of writing prose.
During his apprenticeship he discovered a volume of The Spectator which contained the periodical essays of Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele. In this he felt that there was hope of improving his writing. He read these papers repeatedly, copied and copied them. He was so interested in improving his writing that he even tried to remember the papers from memory.
Franklin realized that writing well during his time was a rare talent. So rare was it that someone did manages to do well was immediately placed at the center of social and cultural attention.
When Franklin was sixteen, his older brother James founded a weekly newspaper, the New England Courant. Readers were invited to contribute regularly. Franklin, who was his brother's apprentice, read and wrote many of these contributions. This experience made him realize that he could probably write as well as the contributors. In 1722 he decided to submit 14 essays written under the pseudonym "Mrs Silence Dogood". Dogood was a fictional widow in middle age who wanted to satirize a wealth of themes, from funeral law to praise.
James and his friends were happy with this contribution - not knowing that it was written by Benjamin. They were convinced that the writing was so skilful that it could only have come from a mature, talented genius. Eventually, however, James discovered that Benjamin had written the letters. This, combined with James' general aggression, led Franklin to flee Boston for Philadelphia in 1723.
Philadelphia
In the following years, Franklin held a number of jobs - including bookkeeper, shopkeeper and currency cutter. From 1728 he returned to print paper currency in New Jersey. Shortly thereafter, he entered into a partnership with a friend to open his own printing business in Philadelphia and to publish government books and pamphlets. In 1730, Franklin's experience in the printing industry gave him the title "official printer in Pennsylvania". On September 1, he had a joint marriage with the Deborah Reading daughter of the family he lived with in his younger years in Philadelphia.
By then, he had created "Junto" - a social and self-improving study group for young men, which meets every Friday to discuss a range of topics, including morality, politics, culture and philosophy. Finally, in 1731, Junto members wanted to expand their reading and discussion choices. This led to Franklin establishing and maintaining America's first subscription library, the Library Company of Philadelphia.
The existence of Junto symbolizes one of the biggest overarching themes in Franklin's life - and in fact one of the things he is most remembered for. That is, his diligence and willingness to constantly reflect and improve himself. Particularly evident is his strong belief in the power of education as a method of self-improvement.
In 1748, Franklin was 42 years old and had become one of Pennsylvania's richest men. He also became a soldier in the Pennsylvania militia. He left the printing business to a friend, giving him more time to carry out scientific experiments and explore his ideas of inventions.
Inventor Franklin
Since he had accumulated enough wealth by this time, Franklin moved to a new, larger house in a quieter part of Philadelphia. He left the printing business because of the social convention that no busy craftsman could be a gentleman. Instead, he became a silent partner in the Franklin and Hall printing house - from which he would make an average annual profit of over $ 600 annually.
During this period, Franklin spent his time studying philosophy, politics, and science. In particular, he chose to cultivate his scientific experience through his inventions. During his life he was responsible for several inventions, many of which are still important today.
The first, created around 1740, was a stove that provided more heat with less fuel, thus making it more efficient. During the 1740s he also experimented with electricity and published his findings in a book from 1751 entitled Experiments and Observations on Electricity .
In 1761, Franklin began the development of his favorite invention - the armonica, a musical instrument consisting of spinning glass bowls on a shaft. This instrument was used by both Mozart and Beethoven - but fell out of popularity around the turn of the century.
In addition to these, Franklin's other scientific contributions and discoveries include uncovering the distinction between insulators and conductors, proving the identity of lightning and electricity, contributing new vocabulary to the science of electricity (including conductor, charge, emissions, condensation and electrification). He demonstrated that electricity was a single "liquid" with positive and negative (+/-) charges instead of, as traditionally assumed, two separate types of liquid. As a result, his fame spread rapidly.
Franklin's political career
Franklin joined the Philadelphia City Council in 1748. A year later, he became a justice of the peace; and in 1751 he became town councilor and member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. His greatest political interest, however, was the British Empire - which he regarded as "the greatest political structure of human wisdom ever erected." In 1753, Franklin also became a royal official, deputy postmaster and postmaster in all the northern colonies.
During Franklin's political involvement, he contributed many things. He had a hand in writing the Declaration of Independence. He also participated in the drafting of the Articles of Confederation, America's first national constitution. In addition, he negotiated the Treaty of Paris - which put an end to the American Revolutionary War. This article has not gone into depth regarding the American Revolution, so if you are looking for more details, click here ..
In addition, he was the oldest member of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, which drafted the United States Constitution in Philadelphia. He was also a diplomatic representative of the new American Republic in France during the French Revolution - gained so much social recognition that the way he styled his hair even became trendy among men in France.
Death
Towards the end of his life, Franklin often complained of ailments - it turned out that he suffered from gout. It was this disease that finally killed him in April 1790.
At the time of his death, he had fallen into disfavor with both friends and family in the United States. This was mainly due to the fact that he had spent most of his life abroad, in France and London.
Still, about 20,000 1970 mourners attended his funeral in Philadelphia. In June XNUMX, the Frenchman Count Mirabeau suggested to the French National Assembly that they mourn Franklin's death.
Franklin's relationship to slavery
When we discuss Franklin's life, it is important to put it in context and understand another very important - but largely ignored - aspect of 18 th century century. Slavery, as an institution, was still alive and well. Unfortunately, despite Franklin's broader political involvement, he did not say whether the damage was caused by slavery. That is, not until later in life.
Franklin's involvement in slavery
Overall, like other white Americans of his day, he profited from both the domestic and international slave trade. He strongly defended slaves during the revolution, and lamented the easy way slaves people and servants fled to the British army during the colonial wars of the 1740s and 50s. For more on Franklin's involvement in slavery and racism, two incredibly insightful, detailed and well-written articles have been linked for simplicity, here. and here ..
In addition to acquiring new property in 1748, Franklin also had several slaves working in his new home and printing house. Over the next two decades, Franklin's view of slavery would evolve so much that he would eventually acknowledge the institution's inherent injustice and mistakes.
The evolution of Franklin's understanding of slavery
In 1759, Franklin met Anthony Benezet, who later co-founded the Abolition Society. In 1763, Franklin wrote that "African shortcomings and ignorance" were not natural - as was mistakenly thought at the time, in an attempt to justify their slavery - but stemmed from a lack of education, slavery and negative environments. For the context in which he lived, this picture was relatively insightful.
With this in mind, he freed his slaves in the 1760s. In 1787 he also served as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. This society, originally formed under a different name in April 1775, advocated the abolition of slavery in addition to attempting to integrate liberated slaves into American society afterwards. It focused on abolishing slavery as an institution - but similarly abolishing the remnants of other institutions, such as education, moral instruction and employment.
During this time he wrote many treaties calling for the abolition of the institution. Especially in 1790 - not long before his death - he called on the US Congress to end both slavery and the slave trade.
Franklin's words
This concluding section will focus on the written works of Benjamin Franklin, as well as their cultural and political impact.
Poor Richard's Almanack
"Poor Richard's Almanack" catapulted Franklin to further financial success and fame. This text, which he published every year from 1733 to 1758, became known for his witty aphorisms. Often they were concerned about the necessity and importance of diligence, finances and hard work. An example of this is the famous saying "Getting to bed early and getting up early makes a man healthy, prosperous and wise."
Almanacs were a popular era of the genre. People printed almanacs annually, including things like weather reports, recipes, and divination. Franklin published his almanac under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders, a fictional poor man who demanded money to take care of his ever-complaining wife.
The Road to Wealth
Franklin compiled the content he used for Poor Richard's Almanack into a short 30-page pocket size, entitled The Way to Wealth. Franklin intended to use it as a more concise version of the almanac. It focused primarily on offering its readers financial advice.
Franklin's autobiography
Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is perhaps one of his most famous works. In it he describes his many life experiences, from childhood to adulthood. He originally called this work "Memoirs". However, the editors later changed it to "Autobiography". He wrote the text as if he were writing a letter to his illegitimate son, William - with whom he had a fall later in life. Franklin wrote the text long after the match. He permeates it with details about his mistakes, achievements, belief in religion, and of course his writing career.
In addition, he discussed his ancestry in extensive detail. Given his intention to write the text, this was probably so that the son would acknowledge his background. Franklin always wanted his children - and others - to remember his humble beginnings to appreciate how far he had come.
Unfinished worker
Until his death, Franklin worked on one last book. He left the book unfinished. He first intended it to be a planned, detailed guide to living. In it he included wisdom he had accumulated during his life, on a variety of topics.
Finally, editor George L. Rogers compiled these notes into a single book. He published them under the title "Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue:His Formula for Successful Living".
The cultural significance of Franklin and his words
To this day, you do not have to look far to see the legacy Franklin has left him in the United States. With an abundance of parks, schools, cities and universities named after him, there is no trivialization of his influence. As this article has mentioned, he made many significant contributions to a wide range of fields - from science to politics - and on a consistently wide scale.
However, it is his eloquent, intelligent and effective way of expressing himself - through his writing - that binds it all together. It is without a doubt through language and literature that Franklin made the greatest impact. Millions keep quoting the witty words from him Poor Richard's Almanack in difficult times. The many political dissertations he prepared, contributed to and signed, greatly contributed to shaping the direction of his country. And the intimate details of his autobiography, above all, help us remember him. Not as the man we want him to be, but as the man he was.