The Narrative Of Benjamin Franklin's Life

Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17, 1706. As a child, Franklin dreamed of becoming a sailor but when one of his older brothers’ death on the sea, his father quickly demolished those dreams. Franklin was raised in a sufficiently religious household and his parents wanted him to become a preacher, so they sent him off to Boston’s Latin School at age eight. Apparently his father didn’t see him fit as a preacher, as the next year he was sent to a school for writing and arithmetic, which would be useful for the family trade. Unfortunately, because of financial issues, the following year he had to drop out of that school also. He then worked with his father in candle and soap making but showing little to no interest in that, his father sent him to be an apprentice with his half-brother, James.

This would be where he would stay for most of his life. He soon thereafter got married to Deborah Read. He was the second husband of her and they would go on to have three children together. His first son died at age three which left him with a daughter and a son. His wife died many years later and though he never remarried, he did propose to a woman in London when he was in his seventies. Franklin was raised in a large family with many step siblings. His father, Josiah Franklin, had seven children with his first wife, Anne Child, and ten more with his second wife and Franklin’s mother, Abiah