Benjamin Franklin

• He was born in Boston, but moved to Philadelphia in 1723
• He was a printer by vocation and an inventor, philosopher and author by hobby
• His formal education ended at the age of ten.
• At twelve he became a printer´s apprentice and worked as a printer from 1718- 1723.
• He founded several newspapers such as the " Pennsylvania Gazette" and the "General Magazine" but also a German language paper that unfortunately lasted less than a year
• He introduced or at least suggested a police force, a volonteer brigade, the Acadamy of Philadelphia) and an insurance company.
• He invented a number of practical things such as the Franklin Stove and bifocal glasses.
• Later he became deputy postmaster general and he intervened between England and the colonies before the American Revolution.
• Benjamin Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of Independence.

Benjamin Franklin played many vital roles in establishing both the independence of the United States and in ensuring the success of the young nation. Elected as a delegate to the Albany Congress of 1754, his Albany Plan outlined the balance of power between local independence and colonial union, and has been said to be prophetic of the U.S. Constitution. He served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, was chosen for the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, was sent as a diplomat to France to procure military assistance during the Revolution, and was appointed as one of three to negotiate the Treaty of Paris. Franklin also served as a delegate to the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution.
It was Franklin who secured the help of France in the War of Independence and had his share in the negotiation of the treaties of peace, too.


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