Benjamin+Franklin

=Benjamin Franklin the 'Shocking' Man= By: Saanya Mishra 8E

Welcome to my Page. My name is Benjamin Franklin, and I'm a certified writer, Let me introduce myself to those who dont familiarize with me.

I was born on January 17th, 1706 (I am quite old now), in Boston, Massachusetts Bay in a house on Milk Street. Living in Boston, yes, you would have guessed already that I am an American. I was the 15th child, and youngest son to a family of 17 children. My father and mother, Josiah and Abiah Franklin were persevering and religous. They raised me to be a Episcolpalian (he who practices the principles of church government), but as I grew up, I took to Deism, and became a Deist (which is believing in the existence of a god based on the evidence of reason and nature only, not of supernatural exposure). My father had dreams of me attending school with the clergy, but couldn't afford to do so, leading to the fact that I could only study in school for two years. My biggest strength was reading and I enjoyed it nevertheless. I was fair in writing, and my arithmetic was poor. So I did not graduate, but I continued my education through covetous reading, because I believe that the doors of wisdom are never shut. I studied my own writing techniques, using a volume of the British journal //The Spectator//as a guide. Soon, my compostion became clear and precise. I also taught myself the basic rules of algebra and geometry, navigation, grammar, logic, and the natural and physical sciences. I worked and fractionally mastered French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. I loved literature, some of my favorites being //Pilgrim's Progress,// Plutarch's //Lives//, Cotton Mather's //Bonifacius// and Daniel Defoe's //Robinson Crusoe// .On top of that, till 12, my father kept me home to slice wicks and melt tallow in his soap and candle shop. At 12, my father persuaded me to become an apprentice in my big brother James's printing shop. He was a good teacher I must say, despite the beatings. and I learned everything about the printing trade from him. But at 17, I wanted to be my own master, so I ran away to Pennyslvania to seek a new future, a decision that even now I dont say I regret. When I reached Pennsylvania, I worked in many printer shops around the town, but I was not content with the instant prospects. After a few months, The Governor of Pennsylvania offered me a good job in London, evidently to attain the equipment needed for constituting another newspaper in Philadelphia. In London, I was employed as a typesetter in a printer's shop, which is now a church. I retreated back to Pennsylvania in 1726, with the help of Mr. Denham, who employed be as clerk, shop-keeper and bookkeeper in his buisness. In 1727 (I was 21 then), I created my own group, called the Junto whom I liked to called a gathering of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesman who hoped to improve themselves, while they improve their community." The Junto was a discussion group for events of the day, and I must say it consequently gave surge to many organizations in Philadelphia.
 * Childhood Brief**