Benjamin Franklin

Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706. At the time, Massachusetts was one of the American Colonies controlled by Great Britain. Franklin, who had 16 siblings, went to school for only two years. He left at age 10 to work in his father’s shop, making candles. But that didn’t stop him from learning. He was a curious kid and read hundreds of books. 

When he was 12, Franklin went to work in his brother’s printing shop. There, he learned about printing newspapers and began writing articles. In 1723, at age 17, Franklin moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1729, Franklin bought a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. It soon became one of the most well-respected papers in Pennsylvania.

Over the next decades, Franklin worked to improve life in Philadelphia. He started a free public school and the first hospital in the Colonies.

Franklin also loved figuring out how things worked. In a famous experiment in 1752, he tied a metal key to a kite string and flew it in a storm. Electricity from lightning traveled down the string and struck the key. Franklin had proved that lightning is a kind of electricity.

He used what he learned about electricity to invent the lightning rod, a metal pole that is attached to buildings. The rod draws lightning away from the building and keeps it from causing a fire.

Like many colonists, Franklin wanted to break free from Britain. The first battles of the American Revolution were fought in 1775. 

The following year, Thomas Jefferson wrote a draft of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin was part of a small group who edited the document, which announced that the Colonies were free from British rule. 

Franklin played a key role during the revolution, though not on the battlefield. Instead, he spent the war in France, where he convinced the French king to support the colonists in their fight for independence. 

After defeating the British, America’s Founders realized that their new country needed a strong government. In 1787, Franklin was one of the delegates from the states who met in Philadelphia to create the U.S. Constitution. This plan for how the U.S. government is run is still used today.

Over the course of his life, Franklin worked his way from poor candlemaker to printer, writer, inventor, diplomat, and Founding Father. He died in 1790, at the age of 84.

One of Franklin’s many famous sayings was “Wish not so much to live long as to live well.” Many people think he did both.

1. Which details in the article support the idea that Benjamin Franklin was a skilled inventor?
2. Based on the article, what are colonists?
3. How are the documents Franklin helped create an important part of U.S. history?