American Literature

Benjamin Franklin, the tenth son of Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger was born on January 17th 1706 in Boston. His father wanted Benjamin to become a clergyman but he was not in a position of paying him school fees. Franklin liked reading so much but lack of fees made him not go to school.  Benjamin Franklin opted to help his brother James does set typing work and by the age of twelve years he could sell the products in the streets. Benjamin was one of the common prominent people who were taken as founders of United States of America. He was a well known printer, civil activist, satirist, scientist, politician, soldier, inventor, diplomat and statesman (Seavey, 124). Franklin was an icon in his many inventions and theories particularly in Physics. One of the major theories of Franklin was about electricity where by he invented lightening rod, carriage adometer and other electronic machines. He supported the idea of political system in America and he was the pioneer of public library in America and he established fire department in Pennsylvania. He used his diplomacy during a time of American Revolution where he secured French alliance that helped Americans get their independence.
The life of Benjamin Franklin
    As a young child, he had a dream of becoming a scholar in different fields and wanted to become an academician. Although his father wanted Benjamin to become a religious man, his dream never materialized because of the many year religious schools were taking. He went to school for a short period of time and at the age of twelve years he could help his brother in selling set type products. At the age of fifteen years, James his brother started printing newspapers in Boston and his first publication was New England Courant. James paper became the third in the city of Boston and it was all about opinions by his friends, advertisements and other news.  Benjamin wanted to write some articles in the paper but his brother could not allow him.
 He started writing letters during night and he could use Silence Dogood name to sign the letters. He used the name of this widow because she was a well known person and had a strong stand about how women were treated in the society. After writing the letters, Benjamin could sneak them in the printing room at night so that no person knew where the letters came from. The pieces of work were very smash and every person who read them wanted to know the real Silence Dogood. This went on for a long period of time until the sixteenth letter when Benjamin confessed that he was the author of the letters (Rider, 36). Readers praised him for his work but his brother down played the efforts of Benjamin Franklin. During this time, there was a movement formed by Protestants to fight catholic religion which they thought was not strong.
The movement was called puritan and James criticized their ideas. At the same time, an outbreak of smallpox spread in many cities and puritans did not support the idea of hospitalization but believed in inoculation. The Franklins did not support inoculation because they thought it was making people become sicker. A debate arose between people in Boston and the idea of James criticizing their views.  He was then put into jail leaving his business under the custody of his brother. When James was released from jail, he could not appreciate the work of his brother but instead he kept on harassing him. Benjamin felt so bad to be harassed by his brother for no apparent reason and opted to run away for safety. This happened in 1723 where he escaped to Philadelphia (Doren, 12).
     It was an illegal thing to run away in America but Benjamin regardless of this decided to take a boat and moved to New York. His plans were to find printing job but this was unfortunate to him. He opted to move to New Jersey but also failed to get job. His final destination was in Philadelphia where he used some amount of money he had saved to purchase some rolls for printing. He was so messy and wet when he met with Deborah Read who would become his future wife. She never thought of getting married to this odd looking man but this happened after seven years
 The governor revoked the offer making Benjamin to spend most of his time in England doing his printing job. Benjamin was living with family members of Deborah the girl who saw him arrive at Philadelphia until the time he left for London. Deborah wanted to get married to this young man but when he left for London Deborah got married to another man. He never took long time in London and when he returned to Philadelphia, he started a small shop but after a short period of time, he went back to his printing job but this time round as a helper (Franklin, Doren, 14). He was very outstanding in his job and many Philadephians noticed a difference between his work and those other printers.
He established himself in this job fully and the government could give him contracts. It was in 1728 when Benjamin fathered a baby boy named William but the mother of this child is not known. After two years, he met with his childhood friend Deborah Read and they got married. The former husband to Deborah had run away and she was now free to marry Benjamin Franklin. In addition to printing job, the couples owned a store and Deborah used to sell products ranging from minor products like soap to big items like fabrics (Goodman, Franklin, 16). They had also a bookshop that was run by Benjamin. This was the beginning of better life for Benjamin and his wife Deborah.
Work in Pennsylvania
    Benjamin Franklin was now a well known business man and he used to read newspapers. In 1729, Benjamin bought Pennsylvania Gazette which he had printed and had also contributed some articles. The paper was very popular because of its political cartoons that were produced by Benjamin himself. He became very prominent man in printing work and he organized groups that constituted young working men who were dedicated to serving the society. He also joined a movement of Masons and thus his social schedule was very tight.
     Benjamin Franklin was a dedicated man who served the civic in a good way. He came up with a project of cleaning, lighting and paving the city of Philadelphia between 1730s and 1740s. He was very sentimental when it came to protection of the environment. In 1731, he set up a public library that helped him become one of the most popular men in Philadelphia. At these times of American Revolution, books were very expensive and scarce and Benjamin thought that bringing together resources would make the books available in England at a cheap price. He learned that the people living in the city were getting sick more often and there was need of a health facility (Franklin, 19). In 1751, Franklin brought together a group of people who led to formation of Pennsylvania Hospital. The hospital, public library and society are still inexistence in America today. He further noticed that the spread of fire had become a threat to many lives of people in Philadelphia and in 1736, he formed a union to fight fire. He established Philadelphia Union Fire Company which was the first fire union in the city. Franklin saw many families were loosing a lot of property and life to fire and to compensate these individuals Benjamin fought for establishment of an insurance company to insure individuals against effects of fire. The Insurance policy is still in operation today in America (Franklin, 22).
     His business of printing was growing massively and he could afford to open branches in other cities. In 1749, he said enough was enough about printing and retired from the business. He started doing some science experiments and other inventions. This was not a new venture to Benjamin because earlier he had developed an electric stove that was used to warm houses. The stove was named after him and it was very efficient. He also invented swim fins, bifocals and musical instrument known as glass armonica. In early 1750s, Benjamin used his knowledge to study about electricity (Goodman, Franklin, 27). His first experiment was kite that he used to verify the relationship between electricity and lightening. This experiment made him to be a very popular man in the entire world.
     Benjamin Franklin was also interested in politics and in 1757, he went to England as a representative of Pennsylvania who fought over who should represent the colony. He remained in England until 1775 and all this time he was the colonial representative of Georgia, Massachusetts and New Jersey. All this time, Benjamin considered himself as one of the loyal Englishmen. He had gained interest in England and wanted to stay in England for the rest of his life with his family but Deborah could was afraid of traveling by ship. In 1765, he was caught up by Americas Stamp Act but he testified before parliament that there is need of members to repeal the law (Doren, 32). He had made a lot of friends in England but the rate of corruption was very high in political organizations and other royal organizations.
Franklin started to work on a united colony in1754 and was very serious about the colony. His stay in England was coming to an end due to collision with Thomas Hutchinson governor of Massachusetts. The governor pretended to support people in Massachusetts about complains against England but he was still working in collaboration with the King. The governor sent some letters to America about the issue of English Liberties. Population in America during this time was outranged and it was official that Franklin was behind the leakage of information about the letters (Seavey, 128). He was called at Whitehall that is foreign ministry in England where he was condemned in public.
Establishment of new nation by Benjamin
    Franklin traveled back home where he started working very hard towards achievement of independence. This time, his son William was the governor of New Jersey and Franklin thought that he will receive full support. This was never to happen because he remained a Loyal Englishman. A rift between father and son was established due to this conflict of power. Franklin however was elected as a member of five committee men who worked so hard on a draft about Declaration of Independence. Most of the contributions in the draft were from Franklin and in 1776 Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration and after a few months, he traveled to France where he worked as an ambassador to Louis XVI court (Goodman, Franklin, 56). Franklin was loved very much by the French people. They understood him as a very prominent person who had tamed lightening and his dress code also distinguished him from other Americans. His wife passed away during this time and he could socialize with other women freely.
 Due to his popularity, the government of France signed Treaty of Alliance with Americans in 1778. He could secure loans with most of the French people that helped to develop his home country. When the Americans won during Revolution, Franklin signed Treaty of Paris in 1783. At his late seventies, Franklin returned to America where he became the president of Executive Council of Pennsylvania. He was appointed as a delegate in Constitutional Convention where he signed the Constitution. In 1789, he wrote an anti-slavery treatise which was his last performance in public (Rider, 40). He died on April 17, 1790 aged eight four years and his legacy is still present in America.