The New Statesman

The New Statesman

What did Benjamin Franklin contribute to America's understanding of itself?s

Lesson Objective

Students will:

• Analyze themes and ideas in historical documents written by Benjamin Franklin.
• Evaluate Franklin’s lasting influence on America’s cultural and moral identity.

do now:

“He that can have patience can have what he will.” – Benjamin Franklin

• What do you think Franklin means by this quote?
• Do you think this idea still represents American values today?
• Why or why not?
• Answer in the chat!

Man of Modest Means

What kind of "founding father" was Benjamin Franklin?

You've probably noticed that American revolutionary leaders like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were not ordinary people. Extremely intelligent, highly educated, ethical, and motivated, they were both thinkers and doers—an ideal combination for establishing and shaping a new nation. Throughout history, people who are well known for speaking or writing texts that express a country's political values are called that country's states people. Jefferson and Washington were both statesmen; they also were born into wealthy families with many advantages. Benjamin Franklin, however, had a very different kind of upbringing. How did the son of a poor candle maker—one of 17 children in his family—become one of the United States' greatest statesmen?

What do most people mean by the phrase "the American Dream"?

benjamin franklin

Inventor and Founding Father | Biography

natural genius

How did Benjamin Franklin achieve so much with so few advantages?

When you think of Benjamin Franklin, do you see a brilliant, bespectacled statesman? Or do you picture an eccentric inventor flying a kite in a storm to learn about electricity? Both images of Franklin are equally true. Long before he became a "founding father" of the United States, Franklin was a successful merchant, scientist, publisher, and diplomat.Franklin was born in Boston in 1706 to a poor family. One of 17 children, he was the first of his siblings to receive any formal education. He made the best of his opportunities, learning to read and write at a very young age and eventually continuing his studies on his own. For many years before the American Revolution, Franklin lived in England and, thanks to his wit and charm, was a favorite dinner guest in London society. However, his efforts to champion the cause of the American colonies eventually earned him the disfavor of Parliament and the press. He returned to Boston at the start of the Revolutionary War and worked with Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. When the war was over, Franklin helped negotiate the terms of peace.

vocabulary

quagmire

tithe

ingenuity

husbandry

salubrity

propriety

subsistence

posterity

accession

a dreamer or a doer?

What did Ben Franklin know about the American Dream?

Benjamin Franklin, who lived to the age of 84, began writing his autobiography when he was 65 years old. He worked on it for the rest of his life and yet never considered it finished. In the section you're about to read, Franklin describes his early years of boyhood in a large family of limited means.

Consider the passage above in light of Franklin's later achievements. Why might Franklin be particularly qualified to talk about the American Dream?

first Reading

What can Franklin tell us about the American Dream?

You're about to read two passages by Benjamin Franklin: an excerpt from his autobiography and a section from a letter that he wrote as an ambassador. The questions below will help you identify the main ideas of both selections and make connections between them. There will be questions in a Quizziz to follow.

From The Autobiography My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church. My early readiness in learning to read (which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read), and the opinion of all his friends, that I should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his character. I continued, however, at the grammar-school not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was removed into the next class above it, in order to go with that into the third at the end of the year. But my father, in the meantime, from a view of the expense of a college education, which having so large a family he could not well afford, and the mean living many so educated were afterwards able to obtain—reasons that he gave to his friends in my hearing—altered his first intention, took me from the grammar-school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his profession generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic, and made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken home to assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-

chandler and soap-boiler; a business he was not bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New England, and on finding his dyeing trade would not maintain his family, being in little request. Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dipping mold and the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, running errands, etc. I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was much in and about it, learnt early to swim well, and to manage boats; and when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early projecting public spirit, tho' not then justly conducted. There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a wharf there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades a large heap of stones, which were intended for a new house near the marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my play-fellows, and working with them diligently like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built our little wharf. The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after the removers; we were

discovered and complained of; several of us were corrected by our fathers; and though I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest. From one of Franklin's letters published in The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Many Persons in Europe having directly or by letters, expressed to the writer of this, who is well acquainted with North-America, their desire to transport and establish themselves in that country; but who appear to him to have formed, through ignorance, mistaken ideas & expectations about what is to be obtained there; he thinks it may be useful, and prevent inconvenient, expensive & fruitless removals and voyages of improper persons, if he gives some clearer & truer notions of that part of the world than appear to have hitherto prevailed. He finds it is imagined by numbers that the inhabitants of North-America are rich, capable of rewarding, and disposed to reward all forms of ingenuity; that they are at the same time ignorant of all the sciences; & consequently that strangers possessing talents in the belles-letters, fine arts, etc. must be highly esteemed, and so well paid as to become easily rich themselves; that there are also many profitable [public service] offices to be disposed of, which the Natives are not qualified to fill; and that having few persons of family among them, strangers of birth must be greatly respected, and of course easily obtain the

best of those offices, which will make all their fortunes: that the governments too, to encourage emigrations from Europe, not only pay the expense of personal transportation, but give lands gratis to strangers, with Negroes to work for them, utensils of husbandry, & stocks of cattle. These are all wild imaginings; and those who go to America with expectations founded upon them, will surely find themselves disappointed. ***** Who then are the kind of persons to whom an emigration to America may be advantageous? and what are the advantages they may reasonably expect? Land being cheap in that country, from the vast forests still void of inhabitants, and not likely to be occupied in an age to come, insomuch that the propriety of an hundred acres of fertile soil full of wood may be obtained near the frontiers in many places for eight or ten guineas, hearty young laboring men, who understand the husbandry of corn and cattle, which is nearly the same in that country as in Europe, may easily establish themselves there. A little money saved of the good wages they receive there while they work for others, enables them to buy the land to begin their plantation, in which they are assisted by the good will of their neighbors and some credit. Multitudes of poor people from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany, have by this means in a few years become wealthy farmers, who in their own countries, where all the lands are fully occupied, and the wages of labor low, could never have emerged from the mean condition wherein they were born.

From the salubrity of the air, the healthiness of the climate, the plenty of good provisions, and the encouragement to early marriages, by the certainty of subsistence in cultivating the earth, the increase of inhabitants by natural generation is very rapid in America, and becomes still more so by the accession of strangers; hence there is a continual demand for more artisans of all the necessary and useful kinds, to supply those cultivators of the earth with houses, and with furniture & utensils of the grosser sorts which cannot so well be brought from Europe. Tolerably good workmen in any of those mechanic arts, are sure to find employment, and to be well paid for their work, there being no restraints preventing strangers from exercising any art they understand, nor any permission necessary. If they are poor, they begin first as servants or journeymen; and if they are sober, industrious & frugal, they soon become masters, establish themselves in business, marry, raise families, and become respectable citizens. Also, persons of moderate fortunes and capitals, who having a number of children to provide for, are desirous of bringing them up to industry, and to secure estates for their posterity, have opportunities of doing it in America, which Europe does not afford. There they may be taught & practice profitable mechanic arts, withut incurring disgrace on that account; but on the contrary acquiring respect by such abilities. There small capitals laid out in lands, which daily become more valuable by the increase of people, afford a solid prospect of ample fortunes thereafter for those children. The writer of this has known several instances of large tracts of land, bought on what was then the frontier of Pensilvania, for ten pounds per hundred acres, which, after twenty years, when the

settlements had been extended far beyond them, sold readily, without any improvement made upon them, for three pounds per acre. The acre in America is the same with the English acre or the acre of Normandy.

organizational patterns

• Chronological/Sequential patterns follow events in time order, moving from beginning to end or through a clear progression of steps, commonly used in narratives, historical accounts, and process explanations to help readers follow a logical timeline of events.
• Cause and effect patterns explore relationships between actions and their consequences, showing how one event leads to another, which is particularly effective in analytical essays, historical fiction, and stories examining character decisions and their repercussions.
• Compare and contrast patterns examine similarities and differences between two or more subjects, characters, or ideas, allowing authors to highlight distinctive qualities and draw meaningful connections that deepen understanding of both elements being analyzed.
• Thematic or topical patterns organize content around central ideas or subjects rather than time, grouping related information together by theme, which is common in essays, descriptive writing, and novels that explore complex ideas through multiple interconnected scenes or chapters.

tools of the trade

How does Benjamin Franklin use familiar text structures to organize his ideas?

You just read passages from two different pieces by Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and a letter comparing aspects of life in America to life in England. Each piece was written for a different purpose and has different, though related, ideas to express. In each case, Franklin selected text structures, or organizational patterns, that would help him express his ideas. In the following passage the boldfaced transition word provides a clue that can help you identify the pattern Franklin chose to connect the ideas in this paragraph.

• What kind of organizational pattern does hence indicate?
• Tell me in the chat!

Like since, because, and therefore, the word hence signals a cause-and-effect relationship: Because the population is increasing rapidly, the new country needs more and more artisans to supply practical goods and services.

Homework

Franklin’s Legacy Today

Write a one-page response (typed, double-spaced):

• Identify one modern American figure (political leader, entrepreneur, writer, or activist) who you believe represents Franklin’s ideals of hard work, self-improvement, or civic duty. Explain how this person reflects Franklin’s vision of the American character.
• Include at least one quote from Franklin’s writings and one piece of evidence about your chosen figure.

Rubric

Franklin’s Legacy Today

• In one or two sentences, describe one American value or ideal that can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin’s influence.
• Answer in the chat!

Exit Ticket

Quiz: The new statesman Response: Franklin's Legacy Today

WRITE ATITLE HERE

When giving a presentation, there are two objectives to pursue: conveying information and avoiding yawns. To achieve this, it may be good practice to create an outline and use words that will burn into your audience's memory.