Ben Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts, into a devoted Puritan household. The Puritans were a religious group that stood against the beliefs of the Church of England.   In 1683 his family had left England and moved to New England in search of religious freedom. Franklin's father was a candle maker and a mechanic, and his mother raised a family of thirteen children. Franklin did not have a good education young, instead, at eleven, he began work at his fathers candle shop, but he hated this trade and the smell of it. He eventually left and began work for his brother who printed for the Boston newspaper. Franklin read every second in the shop and was soon writing pieces that criticized the Boston establishment. He loved to read and even became a vegetarian in order to save money to buy books. When authorities imprisoned his brother for his own critical articles, Benjamin continued the paper himself. In 1723 at age seventeen Franklin left home and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By this time, Franklin embraced the ideas of enlightenment, and he followed people like Locke and Newton.
In 1724, he traveled to England and became a master printer. He returned to Philadelphia and started his own press, publishing a newspaper called the Pennsylvania Gazette and a publication called Poor Richard's Almanack, which contained advice and sayings that are still popular in America today.   He then became a clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and the postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1727, he became involved in community improvement, forming such groups as the Junto. After inventing the Franklin stove, he turned over to science and became interested in electricity. His experiment with the key and the kite proved that lightning was a form of electricity. Also, with his invention of the lightning rod he became even more famous.
In 1751, Franklin was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, beginning his career as a public...