Benjamin Franklin
He was never a president of the United States, nor did he lead any army in a battle. He had no talent in public speaking, preferring to write out his thoughts on paper and for them to be read aloud by others. Yet in his day he was certainly one of the most well known celebrities, beloved in both the United States and through most of Europe. He is Benjamin Franklin, and he has become a symbol of American civilization.
Benjamin Franklin was the youngest of ten sons of a Boston soap and candle maker, had little formal schooling, and was trained in adolescence as a printer's apprentice. Ben's father, "intending to devote Ben as the tenth of his sons to the service of the church" put Ben into grammar school at the age of eight (Franklin (book) -335). With his parents intending for him to have a career in the church it was a sure shock that Franklin became a Deist, a religion based on reason and logic, rather than revelation or tradition. As a teenager,......
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Approximate Word Count: 1804
Approximate Pages: 7 (260 words per double-spaced page) |