BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE WISEST AMERICAN OF HIS TIME
Born in colonial times
77. Benjamin Franklin, the Boy Printer. When Franklin was born in Boston (1706) there were men still living who had seen John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, and Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island.
The scholar of the family
Franklin's father was a poor but hard-working man. He made soap and candles. Benjamin's nine brothers had learned trades, but his parents had decided that he should be the "scholar of the family." At eight he went to school to prepare for college and was soon at the head of his class.
Put to work
But it was hard to feed and clothe a family of seventeen, and Benjamin was sent to another school where he could fit himself for business. But he did poorly in arithmetic, and at ten was taken out of school and put to work with his father.
Longs for the sea
In the port of Boston Franklin saw the ships and sailors of all nations, and longed to go to sea, but his father took him to visit the shops, where he saw men busy at work with all kinds of tools. Although Benjamin liked to work with tools, he liked to read better, and spent all his little earnings in buying books. He borrowed books when he could not buy them.
