Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

1. Franklin wrote this letter to his son William to give him an account about his father’s life. Franklin wrote this in 1771 as his son was serving as governor in New Jersey while he was in vacationing in England.

2. Franklin came from a typical family. His father was named Josiah and married at a young age. He had seven children with his first wife and had ten with his second. His father was a “Sope-Boiler” which meant he made soap and candles (346). His father was a strong man skilled in music and was ingenious. His mother, Abiah, was of “an excellent constitution (347).” She raised all of her ten children and saw them grow up and get married. Franklin does not talk about his older brothers except that they “were all put apprentices to different trades (345).” One brother that he does spend time describing is James. He owned a printing press in Boston, Massachusetts for which Franklin was an apprentice to for years. His brother was said to encourage Franklin to compose two ballads. Later, the brothers had a disagreement and the two parted ways.

3. Franklin first began using writing as the means to argue with his friend John Collins. They exchanged three or four letters before Franklin’s father found out what his son was doing. His father said that “tho’ I had the advantage of my antagonist in correct spelling and pointing… I fell far short in the elegance of expression (350).” Franklin began reading the Spectator newspaper and trying to copy it from memory. Over the course of time, he began to improve his writing by comparing his writing with the original document in order to correct his grammatical errors.

4. Franklin’s first “Errat” (error) was when he wrote a political article in his brother’s newspaper that offended one of the Houses of Massachusetts legislature. They arrested his brother for a month and said, “James Franklin should no longer print the paper called the New England Courant (354).” For a few months, the paper was printed...