Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography
(Benjamin Franklin)
Benjamin Franklin started his life in ?poverty and obscurity? in Boston in1706. At ten years old, after two years of formal schooling, he worked for his father. He hated candle making. Josiah Franklin took him around Boston, showing him all the trades, hoping one would grab his interest, but none appealed to him. Josiah used Ben?s passion for reading to convince him that reading and printing went hand in hand. Before he was twelve, his father had him sign apprentice papers with his brother James, making him an indentured servant until his twenty-first birthday. His brother, the master, would beat him, the apprentice, if he felt he wasn?t working hard enough or learning quickly enough. This insulted Ben?s pride and dignity for he felt he deserved some consideration as a brother. His brother introduced Ben to the newspaper business when he started the second newspaper in the colonies, The New England Courant. After helping to set the type and print the paper, Ben would deliver it. He wrote and submitted pieces anonymously by sticking them under the door at night. When his brother published them, it amazed Ben when the paper?s adult audience liked what he wrote. He showed a genius for ?libeling & satire? as he poked fun at ?our Rulers.? Because of James? attacks on the Assembly, they passed a law that he could no longer print the paper. James contrived to discharge Ben?s indenture papers so that he could publish the paper. Because his brother continued to treat him as an indentured servant, Ben determined to run away. At age seventeen, he arrived in Philadelphia penniless. He retired at age forty-two the richest man in the colonies. Before his death, he would become an acclaimed writer, inventor, diplomat, scientist and help to create a new nation.
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