What other things happened during his early life?
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Josiah Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's father, worked as a tallow chandler and soap boiler, but wanted all of his sons to learn some type of trade. However, he wanted Benjamin to serve as the tithe of his sons, so he sent him to Grammar School. Benjamin showed great progress in reading and writing, but did not do as well in math. Soon after, Josiah took him out of Grammar School because of his limited financial resources and put him in a normal school instead. As before, Benjamin did well in writing/reading, but still made no progress in math, so Josiah decided to take him out of school and have him assist him in his business. However, Benjamin was not happy with his job, so Josiah then decided that Benjamin could work in his brother's printing business. So, at the age of 12, Benjamin was indentured to serve as his brother's apprentice until the age of 21.
Other Important Events
Other Important Events
- 1721
- Writes ballads in printed form and peddles them in the streets.
- Anonymously contributes to the "New-England Courant" and temporarily edits it.
- Becomes a free-thinker and a vegetarian.
- 1723
- Obtains employment in Keimer's printing-office.
- Abandons vegetarianism.
What about his personality helped him succeed?
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In 1726, Benjamin Franklin established 13 virtues that he wold implement in his life in order to make himself a better and more virtuous person. He made a book with multiple pages of weekly progress charts in order to keep track of his progress in implementing the virtuous characteristics in his life. At the end of each day, upon examination, he would mark, with a little black spot, every fault he committed against the respected virtue that day. Each week, he focused on one characteristic, so he could see which characteristics were starting to "naturally" implement in himself. In result, he went through 4 courses of charts a year, each course consisting of 13 weeks. As anybody would, he became very delighted to eventually notice that he started getting clean books after a thirteen weeks' daily examination. This development of an excellent and virtuous personality positively affected his ability to help construct the Constitution and make it foolproof from human incompetence and the change/development of the society through time.
Did he know what he wanted to be in the future; how did he prepare for it, or what led him to the path he wound up following?
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Based off of what Benjamin Franklin stated about his early life in his autobiography, he never implied or said that he knew he wanted to be a scientist or a politician. Most of the things that he went through in his childhood were things that his father decided that he should do. For example, his father put him in Grammar School and he did great in reading/writing, but did poorly in math. Then, his father took him out of school and made him work in his business, but that didn't work out, so he put him in Benjamin's brother's printing business. Whether or not his father put him in his brother's printing business to develop his writing skills is unclear to me. Regardless, many of his father's actions got Benjamin Franklin prepared for succeeding in his future career as a politician and a scientist. With his established qualifications, he was able to run away to Pennsylvania and become a delegate in numerous early conventions.