Poor Richard’s Almanac, Autobiography | Benjamin Franklin

Plot summary

Poor Richard’s Almanac: A popular newspaper printed by Franklin beginning in 1733.

Autobiography: A lively account of Franklin’s life until 1760.

Author and Date

• Benjamin Franklin
• What a contrast with Jonathan Edwards!
• Edwards: end of the Puritan era
• Believed in God’s intervention in the world
• Religion begins and ends with God as an Actor in history
• Franklin: beginning of the Englightenment in America
• A quasi-deist, he typically subscribed to the watchmaker/mechanical view of the world, but at Constitutional Convention he appealed for prayer to ask for God to intervene in the acrimonious proceedings (discussion)

- Evaluation and critique of Deism is found here

• Religion reducted to ethics or morality
• 6 weeks before death – rejects Christ’s divinity while accepting Christian moral code
• believes in a Supreme God and doing good to others
• rebuked others (Paine) for thinking religion is unimportant
• still thought American under some sort of divine protection
• Reaction to Puritans just talking God w/o living their faith???
• Evangelist George Whitefield meets Franklin, the agnostic, in 1740s
• Become fast friends
• Even put four gold sovereigns (all money on him) in collection plate – for orphanage in Georgia
• “It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so no one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.”
• What he does get from Puritans is his work ethic, as we will see
• Born in Boston in 1706, but almost seems like he could be from 20^th century
• 10^th of 17^th children from poor family
• Dad was an immigrant from Oxfordshire (candlemaker)
• Parents love to 84 and 87
• Father had lots of books, but mainly about theology
• Franklin’s mind wandered farther afield
• Madison: I “never passed half an hour in his company without hearing some observation or anecdote worth remembering.”
• Bad PR for teachers: only went through second grade
• Largely self-taught
• French, Latin, Italian, Spanish, math, science, etc.
• Very skilled journalist
• Printer’s apprenctice (elder brother James), writer (at 15) for newspaper,
• Goes to Philadelphia in 1720s – de facto capital of Colonies
• Becomes a printer (#1 by age 24), then a publisher
• Prints Pennsylvania’s money, Bibles, pamphlets, etc.
• First Novel printed in America (Samuel Richardson’s Pamela)
• Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1733
• Sold 10,000 copies a year, one for every 100 inhabitants
• Becomes a weatherman, astrologer, agricultural advisor, wit
• Makes him a national celebrity
• Popularizes notion of self-made man
• Famous sayings
• “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
• “God helps them that help themselves.”
• “When you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself.”
• Retired at age 41, independently wealthy
• Never obsessed about money’
• Never took out a patent on his inventions
• Inventor/Pioneer
• Catheter, bifocal glasses, printed first mail order catalog, first insurance company, lightning rod, Franklin Stove, first volunteer fire company, org. U of Penn., developed science of electricity (coined term battery)
• International celebrity
• A “must invite” to social functions as ambassador in Paris and London
• comfortable with rich and poor alike
• Hume, Burke, Adam Smith
• Indiscretions
• Dying wife, Deborah, was dying, in 1775. Not seen in 12 years, but BF refuses to return home to Britain. Married 45 years. Sails home in March 1775, only after hearing of her death
• Son William is a Tory and break never healed
• Two illegitimate children
• One of nation’s Founding Fathers
• As early as 1754, proposed a federal union of the colonies under the British crown
• Never wanted war
• Proposes more powers for Colonies w/in British system
• 1765/1766 – pleads from Colonies against Stamp Act – said that it would lead to armed rebellion, and it was withdrawn
• But events spiraled out of control
• Boston Massacre, etc.
• Radicals in Colonies call him a traitor and almost mob his home in Philly
• Day after he lands in U.S., chosen as delegate to Second Continental Congress
• Signed Declaration of Independence
• “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
• Persuaded French gov’t to supply Colonies with weapons, ships, troops and financial aid
• Thanks to Washington’s victory at Trenton (900 soldiers captured) , French believed Colonies have a chance
• key to American victory over England
• Went to Paris to negotiate peace settlement to end Rev. War
• At Constitutional Convention
• Says looks like it will last, but “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”
• One big disappointment: failed to get turkey (not bald eagle) as national symbol

Historical Background

- Franklin is alive during tumultuous times

- In 1706, when he was born, America was a British colony

- In 1790, when he dies, America is a free nation on the way to becoming a world superpower

- American Revolution

o 1775-1781, but building for a long time

- In Franklin’s life, we have seeds of the America-to-come

o Industrial Revolution

o “Rugged individualism” taming the frontier

o Social Gospel??

Themes/Observations

Old Richard’s Almanac

- different types of wisdom

- start of the soundbite?

- What does it tell us about American mindset?

- Others???

Autobiography

- How much is truth and how much is spin?

- Why write an autobiography?

- What does it reveal of Franklin’s personality?

- Did Franklin have an idea of covenant?

- Others???