Benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions

His keen intellect, sharp wit, and entrepreneurial spirit set him apart as a leading figure in colonial America, paving the way for his crucial role in the American Revolution. As a diplomat, Franklin was instrumental in representing the interests of the American colonies in both London and Paris. His wit and intelligence made him a respected figure among British officials, despite his staunch support for colonial independence.

InFranklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union, which aimed to unite the thirteen colonies under a single government. While the plan was ultimately rejected, it laid the foundation for future discussions on colonial unity and cooperation. His efforts towards colonial unity and representation set the stage for the monumental events that would follow in the fight for American independence.

Benjamin Franklin was not only a skilled diplomat but also a persuasive writer and speaker who played a crucial role in shaping revolutionary thought in the American colonies. Through his writings and speeches, Franklin advocated for independence from British rule and galvanized support for the revolutionary cause. As a member of the Continental Congress, Franklin was part of the committee tasked with creating this historic document.

Franklin was deeply active in public affairs in his adopted city, where he helped launch a lending library, hospital and college and garnered acclaim for his experiments with electricity, among other projects. During the American Revolutionhe served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in He also negotiated the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War Inin his final significant act of public service, he was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17,in colonial Boston. His father, Josiah Franklina native of England, was a candle and soap maker who married twice and had 17 children. Did you know? Benjamin Franklin is the only Founding Father to have signed all four of the key documents establishing the U. Constitution Inat age 12, he was apprenticed to his older brother James, a Boston printer.

By age 16, Franklin was contributing essays under the pseudonym Silence Dogood to a newspaper published by his brother. At age 17, Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship to Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. In latehe traveled to London, England, and again found employment in the printing business. Postal mail delivery became a vital communication line for the colonies—and then helped unite the newly independent United States.

Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia inand two years later opened a printing shop. The business became highly successful producing a range of materials, including government pamphlets, books and currency. InFranklin became the owner and publisher of a colonial newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazettewhich proved popular—and to which he contributed much of the content, often using pseudonyms.

Benjamin Franklin was born 17 Januaryinto a large and poor family. His father had 17 children by two different wives. Whenever he could, Benjamin would take the opportunity to read and learn about a wide range of subjects, from Sophocles to modern science. Whilst co-workers would take a leisurely lunch break, Benjamin Franklin would pore over books from the bookshop munching on some raisins.

After several had been published, he admitted to his father that he had written them. Rather than being pleased, his father beat him for his impudence. Therefore, aged 17, the young Benjamin left the family business and travelled to Philadelphia. You have to catch it yourself. His writings were both humorous and satirical, and his capacity to take down powerful men came to the attention of Pennsylvania governor, William Keith.

Benjamin took the offer, but once in England, the governor deserted Franklin, leaving him with no funds. Benjamin Franklin frequently found himself in awkward situations, but his natural resourcefulness and determination always overcame difficult odds. Benjamin found a job at a printer in London. Franklin accepted and sailed back to the US.

On his journey home, Benjamin wrote a list of 13 virtues he thought important for his future life. Amongst these were temperance, frugality, sincerity, justice and tranquillity. This work led to the field becoming widely known. The CGS unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin Fr is equal to one statcoulomb. Franklin advised Harvard University in its acquisition of new electrical laboratory apparatus after the complete loss of its original collection, in a fire that destroyed the original Harvard Hall in The collection he assembled later became part of the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instrumentsnow on public display in its Science Center.

Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm. On June 15,Franklin may possibly have conducted his well-known kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. He described the experiment in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazetteon October 19,[ ] [ ] without mentioning that he himself had performed it.

Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of electric shock. In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground. He did not perform this experiment in the way that is often pictured in popular literature, flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning, as it would have been dangerous.

When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leyden jar, may be charged: and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of lightening [ sic ] completely demonstrated.

Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He said that conductors with a sharp [ ] rather than a smooth point could discharge silently and at a far greater distance. He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground; Would not these pointed Rods probably benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!

Franklin had a major influence on the emerging science of demography or population studies. He calculated that America's population was doubling every 20 years and would surpass that of England in a century. Four years later, it was anonymously printed in Boston and was quickly reproduced in Britain, where it influenced the economist Adam Smith and later the demographer Thomas Malthuswho credited Franklin for discovering a rule of population growth.

Kammen and Drake say Franklin's Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind stands alongside Ezra Stiles ' "Discourse on Christian Union" as the leading works of 18th-century Anglo-American demography; Drake credits Franklin's "wide readership and prophetic insight. This is succinctly preserved in his letter to the London Chronicle published November 29,titled "On the Price of Corn, and Management of the poor.

As deputy postmaster, Franklin became interested in North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. While in England inhe heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs. British packet ships carrying mail had taken several weeks longer to reach New York than it took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island. The merchantmen had a longer and more complex voyage because they left from London, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall.

Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, learning enough to chart the current and name it the Gulf Streamby which it is still known today. Franklin published his Gulf Stream chart in in England, where it was ignored. Subsequent versions were printed in France in and the U. Though it was Dr. Franklin and Captain Tim Folger, who first turned the Gulf Stream to nautical account, the discovery that there was a Gulf Stream cannot be said to belong to either of them, for its existence was known to Peter Martyr d'Anghieraand to Sir Humphrey Gilbertin the 16th century.

An aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in Maritime Observationspublished by the Philosophical Society's transactions in Franklin was, along with his contemporary Leonhard Eulerthe only major scientist who supported Christiaan Huygens 's wave theory of lightwhich was basically ignored by the rest of the scientific community.

In the 18th century, Isaac Newton 's corpuscular theory was held to be true; it took Thomas Young's well-known slit experiment in to persuade most scientists to believe Huygens's theory. On October 21,according to the popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a lunar eclipse. He was said to have noted that the prevailing winds were actually from the northeast, contrary to what he had expected.

In correspondence with his brother, he learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept that greatly influenced meteorology. He wrote about them in a lecture series.

Though Franklin is famously associated with kites from his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways. Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. To understand this phenomenon more clearly, he conducted experiments.

In on a warm day in CambridgeEngland, he and fellow scientist John Hadley experimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether. In his letter Cooling by EvaporationFranklin noted that, "One may see the possibility of freezing a man to benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions on a warm summer's day.

InFranklin wrote a letter to Mary Stevenson describing his experiments on the relationship between color and heat absorption. One experiment he performed consisted of placing square pieces of cloth of various color out in the snow on a sunny day. He waited some time and then measured that the black pieces sank furthest into the snow of all the colors, indicating that they got the hottest and melted the most snow.

According to Michael FaradayFranklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice are worth mentioning, although the law of the general effect of liquefaction on electrolytes is not attributed to Franklin. Franklin wrote, " A certain quantity of heat will make some bodies good conductors, that will not otherwise conduct And water, though naturally a good conductor, will not conduct well when frozen into ice.

While traveling on a ship, Franklin had observed that the wake of a ship was diminished when the cooks scuttled their greasy water. He studied the effects on a large pond in Clapham CommonLondon. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure.

When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons conI strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons con equal to some three Reasons proI strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.

Like the other advocates of republicanismFranklin emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous. All his life, he explored the role of civic and personal virtue, as expressed in Poor Richard's aphorisms. He felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself.

Franklin's parents were both pious Puritans. The benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions preached the importance of forming voluntary associations to benefit society. Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Mather, but his organizational skills made him the most influential force in making voluntarism an enduring part of the American ethos.

Franklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in He classified himself as a deist in his autobiography, [ ] although he still considered himself a Christian. At a critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in Junehe attempted to introduce the practice of daily common prayer with these words:. In the beginning of the contest with G.

Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.

The motion gained almost no support and was never brought to a vote. Franklin was an enthusiastic admirer of the evangelical minister George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening. He did not himself subscribe to Whitefield's theology, but he admired Whitefield for exhorting people to worship God through good works. He published all of Whitefield's sermons and journals, thereby earning a lot of money and boosting the Great Awakening.

Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.

Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the non-religious Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the American culture permanently. He had a "passion for virtue. The classical authors read in the Enlightenment period taught an abstract ideal of republican government based on hierarchical social orders of king, aristocracy and commoners.

It was widely believed that English liberties relied on their balance of power, but also hierarchal deference to the privileged class. Franklin's commitment to teach these values was itself something he gained from his Puritan upbringing, with its stress on "inculcating virtue and character in themselves and their communities. Max Weber considered Franklin's ethical writings a culmination of the Protestant ethicwhich ethic created the social conditions necessary for the birth of capitalism.

One of his characteristics was his respect, tolerance and promotion of all churches.

Benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions: In government, he made contributions

Referring to his experience in Philadelphia, he wrote in his autobiography, "new Places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary Contribution, my Mite for such purpose, whatever might be the Sect, was never refused. Although his parents had intended for him a career in the church, [ 19 ] Franklin as a young man adopted the Enlightenment religious belief in deism, that God's truths can be found entirely through nature and reason, [ ] declaring, "I soon became a thorough Deist.

In a major scholarly study of his religion, Thomas Kidd argues that Franklin believed that true religiosity was a matter of personal morality and civic virtue. Kidd says Franklin maintained his lifelong resistance to orthodox Christianity while arriving finally at a "doctrineless, moralized Christianity. The Church of England claimed him as one of them.

The Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and the Friends believed him a wet Quaker. Injust about a month before he died, Franklin wrote a letter to Ezra Stilespresident of Yale Universitywho had asked him his views on religion:. As to Jesus of Nazarethmy Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in Englandsome Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.

I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure.

Franklin's proposal which was not adopted featured the motto: "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God" and a scene from the Book of Exodus he took from the frontispiece of the Geneva Bible[ ] with Mosesthe Israelitesthe pillar of fireand George III depicted as pharaoh. The design that was produced was not acted upon by Congress, and the Great Seal's design was not finalized until a third committee was appointed in Franklin strongly supported the right to freedom of speech :.

In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man Franklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of 13 virtues, which he developed at age 20 in and continued to benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions in some form for the rest of his life.

His autobiography lists his 13 virtues as: [ ]. Franklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he worked on only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance. Franklin's views and practices concerning slavery evolved over the course of his life. In his early years, Franklin owned seven slaves, including two men who worked in his household and his shop, but in his later years became an adherent of abolition.

He later became an outspoken critic of slavery. Inhe advocated the opening of a school for the education of black slaves in Philadelphia. King escaped with a woman to live in the outskirts of London, [ ] and by he was working for a household in Suffolk.

Benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions: To those can be added

In the wake of Somerset v Stewarthe voiced frustration at British abolitionists:. O Pharisaical Britain! Franklin refused to publicly debate the issue of slavery at the Constitutional Convention. Many of the leading American founders — such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and James Madison — owned slaves, but many others did not.

Benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions: During the American Revolution,

Benjamin Franklin thought that slavery was "an atrocious debasement of human nature" and "a source of serious evils. Their argument against slavery was backed by the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society. In his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that stressed the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the integration of African Americans into American society.

These writings included:. Franklin became a vegetarian when he was a teenager apprenticing at a print shop, after coming upon a book by the early vegetarian advocate Thomas Tryon. His reasons for vegetarianism were based on health, ethics, and economy:. When about 16 years of age, I happen'd to meet with a book written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet.

I determined to go into it This was an additional fund for buying books: but I had another advantage in it I made the greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drinking. Franklin also declared the consumption of fish to be "unprovoked murder. Nonetheless, he recognized the faulty ethics in this argument [ ] and would continue to be a vegetarian on and off.

Franklin sent a sample of soybeans to prominent American botanist John Bartram and had previously written to British diplomat and Chinese trade expert James Flint inquiring as to how tofu was made, [ ] with their correspondence believed to be the first documented use of the word "tofu" in the English language. Franklin's "Second Reply to Vindex Patriae, " a letter advocating self-sufficiency and less dependence on England, lists various examples of the bounty of American agricultural products, and does not mention meat.

The concept of preventing smallpox by variolation was introduced to colonial America by an African slave named Onesimus via his owner Cotton Mather in the early eighteenth century, but the procedure was not immediately accepted. James Franklin's newspaper carried articles in [ ] that vigorously denounced the concept. However, by Benjamin Franklin was known as a supporter of the procedure.

Therefore, when four-year-old "Franky" died of smallpox, opponents of the procedure circulated rumors that the child had been inoculated, and that this was the cause of his subsequent death. When Franklin became aware of this gossip, he placed a notice in the Pennsylvania Gazettestating: "I do hereby sincerely declare, that he was not inoculated, but receiv'd the Distemper in the common Way of Infection I intended to have my Child inoculated.

Franklin wrote in his Autobiography : "In I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.

Franklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, which included a string quartet in early classical style. He worked with the London glassblower Charles James to create it, and instruments based on his mechanical version soon found their way to other parts of Europe. Franklin was an avid chess player.

He was playing chess by aroundmaking him the first chess player known by name in the American colonies. Franklin was able to play chess more frequently against stronger opposition during his many years as a civil servant and diplomat in England, where the game was far better established than in America. He was able to improve his playing standard by facing more experienced players during this period.

He regularly attended Old Slaughter's Coffee House in London for chess and socializing, making many important personal contacts. No records of his games have survived, so it is not possible to ascertain his playing strength in modern terms. Franklin was inducted into the U. Chess Hall of Fame in The main character leaves a smallish amount of money in his will, five lots of livresto collect interest over one, two, three, four or five full centuries, with the resulting astronomical sums to be spent on impossibly elaborate utopian projects.

From tothe money was used mostly for mortgage loans. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. Ina group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvaniaproposed the foundation of a new college named in Franklin's honor. Constitution inFranklin is considered one of the leading Founding Fathers of the United States.

His pervasive influence in the early history of the nation has led to his being jocularly called "the only president of the United States who was never president of the United States. Franklin's likeness is ubiquitous. From toFranklin's portrait was on the half-dollar. On April 12,as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated a foot 6 m tall marble statue in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute as the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller presided over the dedication ceremony. In London, his house at 36 Craven Street, which is the only surviving former residence of Franklin, was first marked with a blue plaque and has since been opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House. A total of 15 bodies have been recovered. They note that while Franklin likely knew what Hewson was doing, he probably did not participate in any benjamins franklin biography american revolution contributions because he was much more of a physicist than a medical man.

He has been honored on U. The image of Franklin, the first postmaster general of the United States, occurs on the face of U. From throughthe U. Post Office issued a series of postage stamps commonly referred to as the Washington—Franklin Issuesin which Washington and Franklin were depicted many times over a year period, the longest run of any one series in U.

However, he only appears on a few commemorative stamps. Some of the finest portrayals of Franklin on record can be found on the engravings inscribed on the face of U. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item.

American polymath and statesman — For other uses, see Benjamin Franklin disambiguation. Portrait by Joseph Duplessis Deborah Read. William Francis Sarah. Josiah Franklin Abiah Folger. Early life and education. An illustration of Franklin's birthplace on Milk Street in Boston. Moves to Philadelphia and London. Junto and library. Further information: Early American publishers and printers.

Common-law marriage to Deborah Read. Deborah Read FranklinFranklin's common-law wife, c. William Franklin. Main article: William Franklin. Success as an author. Public life. Anti-monarchism Anti-corruption Civic virtue Civil society Consent of the governed Democracy Democratization Liberty as non-domination Mixed government Political representation Popular sovereignty Public participation Republic Res publica Rule of law Self-governance Separation of powers Social contract Social equality.

Theoretical works. Republic c.

Benjamin franklin biography american revolution contributions: One of the foremost

National variants. Related topics. Early steps in Pennsylvania. Political work. Scientific work. Return to London and Travels in Europe. Defending the American cause. Agent for British and Hellfire Club membership. Coming of revolution. Declaration of Independence. Ambassador to France — Return to America. President of Pennsylvania and Delegate to the Constitutional convention.

Inventions and scientific inquiries. Kite experiment and lightning rod. Population studies. Theories and experiments. Views on religion, morality, and slavery. Thirteen Virtues. View on inoculation. Interests and activities. Musical endeavors. Further information: List of places named for Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Franklin in popular culture.

Pennsylvania Historical Marker. Likeness and image. Examples of Franklin on U. See also. Scott was a descendant of Franklin. William Bache great-grandfather to Sarah Franklin Bache great-great grandmother to Franklin great-great-great grandfather. Historian Friedrich Christoph Schlosser remarked at the time, with ample hyperbole, that "Such was the number of portraits, busts and medallions of him in circulation before he left Paris, that he would have been recognized from them by any adult citizen in any part of the civilized world.