What is the date and place he was born and raised?
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Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 on the Gregorian calendar, but many people claim we should use his birthday on the Julian calendar, January 06, 1706. The reason why is that America originally followed the Julian calendar system, but when Great Britain switched to the Gregorian calendar system in September 1752 by skipping 11 days, America followed in Britain's path. However, not many Americans "moved" their birthdays; but a few, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, "officially" did. In any case, Benjamin Franklin was also born in Boston, Massachusetts.
What aspects of his family was important to his life?
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When Benjamin Franklin displayed his lack of competence for mathematics, his father took him out of school and put him in his brother's printing business. Even though he was his brother, he treated Benjamin as an apprentice and nothing more. Anyhow, Benjamin did show great success in his reading and writing skills. While working as an indentured apprentice under his brother, Benjamin got many opportunities to write stories and essays for the New-England Courant, his brother's newspaper. However, he did this anonymously because of two reasons: he knew his brother would never accept any of his work in his newspaper, and the public wasn't really interested in what a young boy had to say. The public responded very positively to the new essays and stories in the newspaper, giving Benjamin the confidence he needed to believe he was a great writer/thinker. When he grew up, the experience he gained from writing in the New-England Courant was very beneficiary in numerous conventions and introducing ideas for multiple important U.S. documents.
What experiences during his childhood led him to accomplishing what he did? (1)
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When Benjamin Franklin was a child, he found many conflicts between his natural beliefs about God and what his parents' sect of Christianity teaches about God. This led him to doubt the religion and the authenticity of the book of Revelation itself. When researching, some books against Deism fell into his hands. Instead of having the effect on him of what the book was intended for, the arguments against Deists seemed much weaker than the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted. Shortly after, he soon become a thorough Deist. His conversion to another religion surely affected what he believed should be written in the founding documents of the U.S.: the Deceleration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Treaty of Paris, and the Treaty of Alliance with France.
What experiences during his childhood led him to accomplishing what he did? (2)
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James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's brother, published the New-England Courant, which is one of the oldest and first truly independent American newspaper. One political point stated in the newspaper offended the House of Assembly. James was imprisoned and censored for a whole month because he would not reveal the author's identity. When he was discharged from prison, he was accompanied with a order from the Assembly that "James Franklin should no longer print the paper called the New-England Courant." A conference was held in his printing-house among his friends in order to counteract this order. They concluded that they should print under the name of Benjamin Franklin, so they technically couldn't be arrested for "disobeying" the order. In order to also avoid the censure of the Assembly, which could still happen because the printing is being done by his apprentice, Benjamin Franklin's old indenture to his brother was placed upon him again. He took it upon himself to assert his own freedom. When his brother found out he was leaving him, he told every master of a printing-house in town not to employ him. In order to attain employment, he was forced to move to another town that his brother did not have any power or say in the press. He decided to go to New York, but then he went to Philadelphia instead. If this event did not happen, it may as well could have been very possible that our Founding Fathers would have not included the freedom of press in the Constitution because none of them would have had a direct problem with it not being there. It could also be possible that our Constitution would have been dramatically different if Benjamin Franklin did not run away to Philadelphia, and stayed in New York/Massachusetts instead, because he wouldn't have became a delegate.