Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
Massachusetts authorities, leaving Franklin to run the business during his absence.
Franklin was only sixteen.
James also quarreled with Benjamin, who sought freedom from James’s
temper and tyranny by running away, determined to make his own way in the
world. In 1723, he arrived in Philadelphia and walked up the Market Street wharf
munching on one of three large puy rolls and carrying small change in his pocket.
He found work as a printer there until, upon what proved to be the groundless
encouragement of William Keith (1669–1749), a governor of the province, Franklin
traveled to England to purchase printing equipment and start a new printing
business of his own. He worked for others at printing houses for two years before
returning home. While in England, he also read widely, and saw rst-hand the
growing importance of the periodical, the long periodical essay, and the persona of
an author who served as intermediary between a large audience of readers and the
news and events of the day.
He put this knowledge to good purpose once he returned to Philadelphia,
rst co-owning then owning outright a new printing business that published The
Pennsylvania Gazette; books from the Continent; and, from 1733 to 1758, an
almanac using the persona of Poor Richard, or Richard Saunders. Poor Richard’s
Almanac became immensely popular, eventually selling 10,000 copies per year.
With wit, puns, and word play, Franklin oered distinctly American aphorisms,
maxims, and proverbs on reason versus faith, household management, thrift, the
work ethic, and good manners.
In 1730, he married Deborah Read who bore two children and helped raise
Franklin’s illegitimate son William. It was for William that Franklin wrote the
rst part of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. The quintessential selfmade
man, his business success allowed Franklin to retire at the age of forty-two
and focus his energies on the common good and public aairs. He had already
contributed a great deal to both, including inventing an eponymous stove and
founding the rst circulating library; the American Philosophical Society; and the
Pennsylvania Hospital. He also promoted the establishment of the University of
Pennsylvania, an institution of higher learning grounded in secular education.
He applied the tenets of this education in rst-hand observation and study
of the natural world, from earthquakes to electricity. His Experiments and
Observations on Electricity (1751–1753) won him the respect of scientists around
the world. Like other humanist-deist thinkers of his day, Franklin used reason to
overcome institutional tyrannies over mind and body. Between the years 1757 and
1775, he actively sought to overcome England’s tyranny over the colonies in two
separate diplomatic missions to England, representing Pennsylvania, Georgia,
Massachusetts, and New Jersey and also protesting the Stamp Act.
The rising sense of injustice against England led to the First and then the
Second Continental Congresses, at the latter of which Franklin represented
Pennsylvania and served with Thomas Jeerson on the committee that drafted
the 1776 Declaration of Independence, a declaration that represented all thirteen
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