Chapter 2
CHAPTER FOUR: Printer: Philadelphia, 1726–1732
Overview
This chapter traces Benjamin Franklin's ancestry and early life in Boston, from his great-great-grandfather Thomas Franklin through his birth in 1706 and his apprenticeship to his brother James at the printing house. It covers his family's migration to America, his education, his formative reading, and his creation of the pseudonymous Silence Dogood essays that launched his literary career before he ran away to New York at age 17.
Summary
The Franklin family emerged in medieval England as prosperous freeholders known for independence, dissent, and practical ingenuity. Benjamin's great-great-grandfather Thomas Franklin kept a banned English Bible hidden under a stool during Queen Mary's reign. This rebellious streak persisted through generations of clever craftsmen and blacksmiths. Benjamin's father, Josiah Franklin, left his apprenticeship in Banbury and emigrated to Boston in 1683, driven by both religious freedom and economic opportunity. He became a successful tallow chandler, joined the South Church, and rose to civic prominence. After his first wife Anne died in 1689, Josiah married Abiah Folger, descended from reformist Protestants. Benjamin was born January 17, 1706, the youngest of seventeen children. His childhood along the Charles River showed early leadership qualities and a love of swimming, though his formal education ended after a year at George Brownell's writing academy. At age 10, he began work in his father's candle shop but expressed a strong inclination toward the sea. To dissuade him, Josiah showed him various trades. By age 12, Benjamin was apprenticed to his older brother James, a printer recently returned from London, for a nine-year term. James founded the New England Courant in 1721, Boston's first truly independent newspaper. Benjamin secretly wrote the Silence Dogood essays, a series of fourteen witty, satirical pieces published between April and October 1722 that attacked Harvard, defended female education, proposed civic insurance schemes, and criticized religious hypocrisy and governmental corruption. When revealed as the author, Benjamin gained literary prominence but incurred his brother's jealousy. James was subsequently jailed by authorities for mocking religion, and upon his return treated Benjamin harshly. In September 1723, the 17-year-old Franklin ran away to New York, using a secret apprenticeship discharge his brother had signed.
Characters
- Benjamin FranklinThe subject of the biography, a curious and rebellious young boy growing up in Boston who becomes an apprentice printer and secretly writes the popular Silence Dogood essays
- Josiah FranklinBenjamin's father, a tallow chandler who immigrated to Boston in 1683, prospered in his trade, and rose to civic prominence; known for sound judgment and emphasis on industry
- Abiah Folger FranklinBenjamin's mother, descended from reformist Protestants, married Josiah in 1689 after his first wife's death, and lived to age 84
- James FranklinBenjamin's older brother, a printer who founded the independent New England Courant and served as Benjamin's harsh master during his apprenticeship
- Anne Child FranklinBenjamin's first mother, who died in childbirth in 1689 after only a few years of marriage
- Uncle Benjamin Franklin (the Elder)Josiah's older brother who emigrated from England in 1715, lived with the Franklin family writing poetry and sermons, and encouraged Benjamin's early education plans
- Peter FolgerAbiah's ancestor, a Nantucket schoolmaster who learned Native American languages, wrote seditious verse defending Indians during King Philip's War, and was jailed for defying magistrates
- Cotton MatherBoston preacher and author whose sermons influenced Franklin's thinking; he promoted inoculation during the smallpox epidemic and his writings inspired Franklin's later civic projects
- Increase MatherCotton Mather's father and patriarch of the Mather family; he denounced James Franklin's newspaper
- John CampbellFounder and publisher of the Boston News-Letter, Boston's first newspaper, who held a monopoly through his position as postmaster
- William BrookerBoston's postmaster who launched the rival Boston Gazette and hired James Franklin to print it
- John CollinsA bookish boy Franklin's age with whom he engaged in intellectual debates, particularly over female education
- Joseph Addison and Richard SteeleAuthors of The Spectator, a London periodical that influenced Franklin's writing style and served as a model for James Franklin's Courant
- John CheckleyAn Oxford-educated Anglican friend of James Franklin's who wrote an essay in the Courant's first issue attacking the Puritan clergy's promotion of smallpox inoculation