2014 Pyramid Competition - 8th/9th/10th/11th Grade JEOPARDY text "Benjamin Franklin"

Benjamin Franklin

     Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. His family was too poor to pay for his education, so he only went to school for two years. When he was 12 he became an apprentice to his older brother James, a printer. When James discovered young Franklin writing letters to the newspaper pretending to be an old woman, he was very angry. So Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1723.

     In Philadelphia Franklin worked for several newspapers. In 1729 he became the publisher of the newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette. He wrote his own stories, which he published in his newspaper, and he also used the Gazette to criticize British policy in the American colonies. Through the Gazette, Franklin quickly became famous. In 1730, he began living with Deborah Read. Deborah’s first husband John had taken Deborah’s money and fled to Barbados, where he disappeared.

     Franklin became even more important in 1733 when he began writing and publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack. He used this to spread his knowledge and advice about living. Even today, many sayings that Franklin composed are still quoted frequently as proverbs. For example:

• A penny saved is a penny earned.
• No pain, no gain.
• Fish and visitors stink after three days.
• Time is money.

     In 1747, Franklin retired from printing and focused on scientific research. He is most famous for proving that lightning was electricity by conducting a dangerous experiment - flying a kite in a storm, with a metal key attached to the kite. He was shocked several times during his experiments. He used his electrical discoveries to invent the lightning rod. Franklin also invented the glass harmonica (a musical instrument), the rocking chair, an improved stove, bifocal lenses, and the urinary catheter.

     He also entered politics in 1748. He served in the Pennsylvania assembly, as the president of Pennsylvania, and the deputy postmaster general of North Amrica. In 1757 the Pennsylvania Assembly sent him to England to represent its interests to the British government. In 1764 it sent him to England again. In England he became the leading spokesman for the interests of the American colonists. In 1765 England created the Stamp Act. This law was very unpopular in America. Franklin helped get it repealed. He wrote many essays in support of the American colonies. In 1773, he discovered secret letters by the colonial governors of Massachusetts indicating their intent to suppress American colonists’ rights. Franklin sent the letters to America, and the colonists became absolutely furious at British rule.

     When he returned to America in May 1775, the American Revolution had already begun. In June 1776 he was part of the committee of five men who wrote the Declaration of Independence. The Revolution was also a private issue for Franklin. The war divided America and Britain, but it also divided Franklin’s family. Franklin’s son William was the governor of New Jersey. Even though Franklin supported the revolution, William opposed it, and supported England. After the revolution, William went to England, and father and son never talked again.

     In 1776, after signing the declaration, the colonies sent Franklin to France as their representative. At the time, Franz Mesmer’s theory of “animal magnetism” was popular. Mesmer claimed that all living things, including humans, produced a kind of energy, and that Mesmer had the power to feel this energy and use it to cure disease. Franklin was famous as a scientist even in Europe, so the French king appointed Franklin and a team of French scientists to investigate animal magnetism. Their experiments proved that Mesmer’s claims were false. Humiliated, Mesmer left France. Franklin also wrote a humorous essay called “Fart Proudly,” in which he described scientific research on farting.

     In 1785 he returned to America. Franklin opposed the decision to make the bald eagle America’s national animal. He favored the turkey, and called the bald eagle a bird of “bad moral character.” He also became the president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which was dedicated to banning slavery.

     Franklin died on April 17, 1790, but his reputation is still great. Because of his role in American independence, Franklin is called one of the “Founding Fathers” of America. Some people joke that he was “the only president of the United States who never became the president of the United States.” He had a major influence on the political thought of the early United States, and made many scientific discoveries and inventions. For these reasons, modern Americans have put his face on the American one-hundred dollar bill. His famous quote, “Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech” still represents the ideal of liberty for every person.