Benjamin Franklin Biography

A Benjamin Franklin Biography is suitable for a self-improvement website because he was an original self-improvement advocate. He is credited with shaping the moral character of Americans. He was born poor and died rich after having associated with the most powerful people in the world at that time and helping to shape the foundation of a new nation.

He was born the 15th of 17 children to Josiah Franklin in Boston, Massachusetts. He was also the youngest son of a youngest son going back for 5 generations of free tradesmen. As such, there must have been a great deal of independence and enterprise in his background. More than 10 children in a family being common then and few areas being able to support more than one or two families in any particular trade, these youngest sons needed to go off and make their own way.

Benjamin Franklin had 2 years of formal schooling and quickly surpassed some of his older classmates. He was supposed to go onto Harvard and enter the clergy, but his schooling was cut short. He said it was because of finances, but speculation tends toward it being obvious that his wit and boldness made him unsuitable for the clergy and any further education was unnecessary.

According to Benjamin Franklin's auto-biography, he started his self-improvement efforts as a young teenager. He worked on improving his writing by re-writing articles that he felt were well written. He would make notes on the article then, a few days later, he would try to write the articles and compare his efforts with the original and note his faults. On some stories, he would turn them into poetry to improve his vocabulary.

The Benjamin Franklin Biography continues with his apprenticeship to an older brother, James, at the age of 12. It was to be a 9 year apprenticeship in printing , which was significantly longer than normal. This was just one of many 'injustices' his brother exhibited toward him. At least according to Benjamin.

Franklin's first published articles were in his brothers newspaper at the age of 16. He submitted the articles under the pen name Silence Dogood because he felt his brother would throw it out if he knew it came from his little brother. So Benjamin invented Silence Dogood, 'a slightly prudish widowed woman', and wrote 14 articles. Among the articles written were some in defense of education for women, against arbitrary government, an attack on Harvard, and financial relief for single women. Rather daring articles for that time.

After hearing his brothers friends praising the articles, Ben revealed himself as the writer. James was very upset with Ben.

When James was jailed for libel, which was publishing anything that the government didn't like, Benjamin took over running the paper. James was released when he promised never to publish a newspaper again. He got around this by making Ben the official publisher.

The paper failed anyway. But James was jealous of his little brother and tried to force him back into the roll of apprentice and refused to publish any of Benjamins writing. This caused Franklin to run away at the age of 17 to New York. He was an outgoing friendly person and made friends with a fellow passenger on the boat to New York. This friend encouraged him to go on to Philadelphia and helped him get employment with a printer there.

He took advantage of every opportunity to better himself. Sometimes that took the form of befriending scholars to improve his ability to converse on many subjects, or just to increase his own knowledge. Most often he managed to benefit financially from these friendships by getting employment or a lucrative contract.

A Benjamin Franklin Biography must mention a few hard knocks and missteps early in his career. A governor promised to set him up in his own shop and sent him to England with promises of financing that never materialized. He was stuck in London for 2 years. Then was offered the position of shop keeper back in Philadelphia and was loaned the money for his ship passage by the shop's owner. But in less than a year his patron died and he became unemployed again.

During this young adulthood, he made a series of friendships with men who had what you could call, weak character. They were sporadic workers. They encouraged him to spend money on entertainment and often asked Benjamin to cover for them and left his company owing him money. Perhaps these encounters are what inspired him to work on his own character building and develop his 'moral perfection' project.

Read about the Benjamin Franklin virtues plan for self-improvement.

This Benjamin Franklin Biography focuses on how he improved himself, so we continue with him obtaining his own print shop with a co-worker, financed by the co-workers father. Franklin bought him out after a few years and became his own printer and publicist.

I was surprised to find that it was common practice for the publisher of a newspaper to publish letters that supposedly came from readers but were actually from the publisher, Benjamin. Franklin often did this to advocate for many community efforts, like paving the streets and developing a fire department or to criticize rivals or viewpoints he felt were wrong, including those of preachers and politicians.

Benjamin Franklin published many articles in his newspaper, in pamphlets and in his Poor Richards Almanac preaching on self-improvement topics such as how to be a good husband or wife, the Art of Conversation, obtaining wealth, even on being helpful to the community. Read Benjamin Franklin Quotes and Quips

Franklin obtained the position of Postmaster of Philadelphia from the British Postmaster for the Colonies. I had heard that he 'built' the postal system for the country as if it were a new invention, but he had only modified an existing system. Although long before the revolution he had modified the system so that it brought him a tidy profit, as opposed to the normal break even proposition.

As was common practice, Benjamin Franklin used his position as postmaster to obtain news from other places before rival printers. But he also used it to develop a far flung network of contacts for news and, whether he knew it or not, for influence.

Artist Rendition of his kite flying electricity experiment

With all his talk about being frugal and industrious, some people might think a Benjamin Franklin Biography might focus on obtaining and keeping money, but he retired from the printing business at the age of 42, selling out to his foreman. He then devoted much of his time to experiments and correspondence with a wide variety of scholars. He became quite well known in Europe for his investigations and conclusions on Electricity, air and water currents as well as weather phenomena.

Benjamin Franklin's focus was always on the practical. Trying to find a use for all the knowledge that was circulating from the lightning rod to the Franklin Stove. He even reduced the purpose of all religions to helping people live better lives. "You help GOD by helping others". This was his own personal view. He was tolerant of others beliefs.

He also was very community minded initiating the first organized local militia to defend the colony against the French and the Indians the French paid to attack the colony. He also organized for the creation of: the first lending library; the first fire department; night watchmen corps; a hospital; and eventually a college. "What good men may do separately, is small compared with what they may do collectively" was one of his mottos.

Benjamin Franklin got involved in politics first through his printing business, lobbying for the contract to print the Pennsylvania currency. He obtained the position of clerk to the Pennsylvania Assembly. After his retirement from printing he was elected a full member of the assembly. He was sent to London by the assembly to try to get 'The Proprietors' to be more considerate of the Assembly on taxation, among other things. 'The Proprietors' were William Penn and his family. Penn was given a charter by Charles II to govern the colony and ownership of most of the unsettled land. Franklin was not successful and returned to the colony.

Just a few years later, the Pennsylvania Assembly sent him back to London to present a petition requesting the Penn Proprietorship be revoked and the colony put under The Crown. That purpose got preempted by The Stamp Act that had all the Colonies up in arms. Benjamin Franklin managed to get the Stamp Act repealed, but another tax soon took it's place and the tempers in the Colonies heated up.

USA-Declaration of Independence

Returning to Philadelphia, he was sent to a meeting where he participated in writing "The Declaration of Independence." He was then sent to France and negotiated the treaty with France against England. Later, he negotiated and signed the peace treaty with Britain.

Now a man in his late seventies, Franklin returned to America. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention He was 15 years older than the next oldest delegate and twice the average age of all the other delegates. He followed his belief of tolerance and was instrumental in developing the compromises needed to write the Constitution of the United States of America.

After 4 months of working through the constitution, Benjamin Franklin convinced the rest of the delegates to accept the proposed constitution, he stated that "I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present; but sir, I am sure I shall never approve of it. ... I doubt, too, whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make a better constitution" He was the champion of compromise.

Although, he himself owned a couple of slaves as house servants earlier in his life, he spent the last few years campaigning for the abolition of the practice.

No Benjamin Franklin Biography could be complete without all the standard things trotted out. He was born Jan. 17, 1706 and died April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. He had 3 children, the first of which was illegitimate, born before he was married and whose mother no one knows. He and his wife raised William, who later fathered his own illegitimate son, Temple, and raised him. Benjamin's wife, Deborah, bore him a son who died at the age of 4 from small pox, and a daughter, Sally, who later gave him a grandson.

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