The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin guide

Summary

Characters

• FranklinLeadFrom Section 1
• Josiah FranklinGuardianFrom Section 1
• CollinsOtherFrom Section 2
• KeimerRivalFrom Section 3
• Sir William KeithAlso Governor KeithVillainFrom Section 3
• Charles OsborneOtherFrom Section 4
• RalphOtherFrom Section 4
• Mr. DenhamHelperFrom Section 4
• David HarryRivalFrom Section 5
• George WebbOtherFrom Section 5
• Hugh MeredithHelperFrom Section 5
• Reverend Mr. WhitefieldAlso Mr. WhitefieldOtherFrom Section 10
• James LoganHelperFrom Section 10
• Governor DennyAlso Captain DennyGatekeeperFrom Section 12
• Governor MorrisGatekeeperFrom Section 12
• General BraddockGatekeeperFrom Section 13
• Colonel DunbarGatekeeperFrom Section 13
• Lord LoudounGatekeeperFrom Section 14

Chapter by chapter

Storylines

• Franklin investigates his ancestry through family papers, records, travel and remembered testimony.

• Franklin writes his life for his son; subsequent encouragement expands the intended audience to the public, while interruptions and lost papers complicate continuation.

• The Franklin family's religious commitments encounter persecution and restrictions on worship.

• The family conceals its English Bible reading with a joint-stool and a child lookout.

• Josiah and his acquaintances seek religious freedom by emigrating to New England with their families.

• Josiah prepares Franklin for a Church career, but financial and vocational concerns lead him to abandon that education.

• Franklin wants a seafaring life while his father seeks to keep him in a suitable land trade.

• Franklin organizes his companions to build a fishing wharf using stones belonging to house builders; discovery brings punishment and a lesson about honesty.

• Josiah searches for a congenial trade for Franklin, trying cutlery before securing a printing apprenticeship with James.

• Franklin pursues learning through book purchases, borrowing and self-directed study despite limited schooling, money and leisure.

• Franklin becomes his brother James's bound apprentice; professional dependence develops into resentment, violence and a disputed separation, followed much later by reconciliation.

• Franklin experiments with poetry, encouraged by James and gratified by sales, before his father's criticism redirects his literary ambition toward prose.

• Franklin reforms his argumentative manner, moving from contradiction and verbal traps toward qualified speech that improves persuasion.

• Franklin deliberately improves his prose through imitation, reconstruction, vocabulary exercises and revision.

• Franklin adopts vegetarian self-boarding to reduce expenses and gain money for books and time for study; his dietary commitment later lapses.

• James establishes and sustains the New England Courant despite discouragement and later governmental punishment and prohibition.

• Franklin disguises his handwriting and submits anonymous essays to obtain a fair reception; their success precedes disclosure of his authorship.

• Franklin seeks release from James's authority and independent employment, overcoming blocked Boston opportunities by leaving secretly.

• The Courant's political criticism brings James into conflict with governing authorities and exposes Franklin to examination and reputational damage.

• James and Franklin conceal replacement indentures behind a public discharge so the prohibited newspaper can appear under Franklin's name.

• Collins arranges Franklin's concealed passage to New York using a fabricated forced-marriage story.

• Franklin seeks printing employment first in New York and then Philadelphia, enduring travel hazards and shortages before obtaining work.

• Franklin's dealings with Philadelphia's printers combine employment and assistance with growing distrust and commercial rivalry.

• Franklin intends to conceal his Philadelphia residence from Boston acquaintances except Collins, but Holmes discovers his whereabouts.

• Keith cultivates Franklin as a prospective printing proprietor, creating trust and expectations that collapse when promised backing proves empty.

• Franklin seeks paternal financing for a Philadelphia printing business on Keith's recommendation; his father refuses immediate support while allowing a later possibility.

• Franklin keeps the proposed printing business confidential and gives Keimer visiting friends as his stated reason for returning to Boston.

• Franklin's friendship with Collins becomes financially burdensome and quarrelsome through Collins's drinking, gambling and dependence, ending in separation and an outstanding repayment promise.

• Franklin's duty to safeguard Vernon's collected money conflicts with loans to Collins, producing anxiety and delayed restitution before principal and interest are repaid.

• Franklin travels to England to acquire printing equipment and contacts with Keith's promised financing and letters; the missing credentials defeat the scheme.

• Keimer proposes a new sect with Franklin as disputant; Franklin makes participation conditional on a vegetarian trial that Keimer abandons.

• Franklin courts Miss Read and exchanges promises with her, neglects the attachment in London, then renews it and marries her despite uncertainty surrounding Rogers.

• Ralph pursues literary distinction and a livelihood, persisting in poetry despite criticism before eventually succeeding in prose.

• Ralph and Franklin conceal Ralph's authorship of a poem to test Osborne's impartiality, then reveal the deception after his praise.

• Denham becomes Franklin's trusted adviser and paternal protector, redirects his plans and offers commercial advancement; Denham's death ends the employment and protection.

• A letter exposes Keith and Riddlesden's scheme against Hamilton; Franklin and Denham arrange to warn its target.

• Franklin's warning earns Hamilton's grateful friendship and later practical patronage.

• Franklin supports Ralph in London, but financial dependence and Franklin's unwanted advances toward Mrs. T destroy their friendship and prospects of repayment.

• Franklin seeks financial recovery and better employment after supporting Ralph, moving to Watts's and cultivating industry and economy.

• Franklin's refusal to pay the compositors' entrance fee brings exclusion and sabotage; payment restores working relations and enables influence.

• Wygate proposes a European tour funded by printing, but Denham persuades Franklin to return to Pennsylvania instead.

• Franklin accepts Denham's clerkship and prospective mercantile advancement, abandoning printing until Denham's death removes that career path.

• Franklin's renewed employment with Keimer deteriorates as trained workers reduce his indispensability and Keimer resents his wages, leading to a quarrel and departure.

• Franklin and Meredith establish a printing partnership financed by Meredith's father, secretly ordering equipment while Franklin returns temporarily to Keimer.

• Franklin seeks an independent, solvent printing business whose credit rests on skilled work, industry, frugality and public reputation.

• Franklin and Meredith conceal their printing venture until the London equipment arrives.

• Experience of wrongdoing by himself and others leads Franklin to question Deism's practical sufficiency and commit to truth, sincerity and integrity.

• The Junto organizes Franklin's intellectually minded acquaintances into a durable association for learning, disciplined discussion, mutual aid and public influence.

• Franklin plans a newspaper; Webb's disclosure lets Keimer launch first, prompting Franklin's countercampaign and eventual purchase of the competing paper.

• Franklin entrusts Webb with his confidential newspaper project, but Webb reveals it to Keimer.

• The Meredith family's financing shortfall exposes the partnership to litigation and forced sale; friends' loans and a negotiated dissolution allow Franklin to continue alone.

• Franklin uses argument and anonymous publication to support additional paper currency, helping secure authorization and profitable printing commissions.

• Commercial rivalry with Bradford extends to postal exclusion, which Franklin circumvents before obtaining postal office himself.

• A marriage arranged through Mrs. Godfrey founders over Franklin's demand for a portion sufficient to clear his business debt, ending both the courtship and the shared household.

• Franklin develops shared access to books from a failed Junto collection into a funded subscription library with imported holdings, borrowing rules and incorporation.

• Franklin pursues useful moral guidance while withdrawing from doctrinal preaching and maintaining financial support for religious communities.

• Franklin seeks moral perfection through systematic habit formation, achieving improvement and happiness while recognizing persistent faults and abandoning exhaustive monitoring.

• Franklin practices virtues successively through daily examination, fault tables, repeated courses and prayer.

• Franklin intends to publish an inclusive Art of Virtue, but business repeatedly postpones the commentary.

• Franklin attempts to curb pride through humility and conciliatory speech, developing an enduring habit that strengthens his public influence.

• Franklin projects an international association for virtue, later specifying a secret Society of the Free and Easy; competing occupations and declining strength prevent its realization.

• Franklin uses his almanac and newspaper to promote industry, frugality and moral instruction while refusing personal detraction.

• Franklin expands printing through colonial partnerships, beginning in Charleston, with eventual transfers of ownership to successful local operators.

• Franklin defends Hemphill's morally focused preaching against orthodox prosecution, but exposure of borrowed sermons destroys the cause and ends Franklin's congregational participation.

• Franklin extends his education through modern languages and renewed Latin study, adapting chess into an incentive for learning.

• Following reconciliation with his brother, Franklin undertakes the upbringing and printing education of his nephew.

• The Junto preserves its limited membership and conceals its role as the center of subordinate clubs that extend instruction, information and public influence.

• Franklin converts an influential Assembly opponent into a friend by requesting, returning and expressing gratitude for a scarce book.

• Franklin promotes a professional city watch financed by property-based taxation, preparing public support through the Junto's subordinate clubs.

• Franklin develops published fire-prevention advice into mutual firefighting companies with equipment, regular meetings and wider civic participation.

• Franklin and Whitefield sustain personal goodwill despite disagreement over religious conversion and the location of Whitefield's orphan-house project.

• Whitefield raises funds for a Georgia orphan house and later intends to develop it into a college, resisting Franklin's Philadelphia alternative.

• Franklin establishes an academy after an initial suspension, securing subscribers, trustees, premises and support that enable lasting institutional growth.

• Franklin organizes voluntary provincial defense, building an armed association and financing and equipping a battery despite religious and political obstacles.

• Quaker commitments against war complicate military funding and public service, producing opposition, concealed support, verbal evasions and eventual political withdrawal.

• Franklin protects his Assembly office by refusing preemptive resignation and requiring opponents to remove him; unanimous reelection defeats the attempted displacement.

• Franklin promotes his efficient stove while refusing exclusive patent protection so its benefits can be freely shared.

• Franklin resolves the preaching-house trustees' debts and the academy's shortage of space through a transfer preserving preaching access and free schooling for poor children.

• Franklin seeks leisure for philosophy by transferring printing management to Hall, but expanding public responsibilities compete with that expectation.

• Franklin and Norris conduct the Carlisle treaty negotiations using deferred rum distribution to secure sobriety; successful talks are followed by dangerous intoxication.

• Bond and Franklin establish a hospital for the sick poor, overcoming hesitant donors and legislative resistance through publicity and a conditional matching grant.

• Tennent seeks Franklin's help financing a meeting-house and succeeds by following his ordered fundraising advice.

• Franklin turns a successful neighborhood cleaning subscription into support for citywide paving and improved street lighting.

• Franklin proposes a more efficient London street-cleaning system after observing dust, mud and the rapid work of an impoverished sweeper; one proposed device remains doubtful.

• Franklin and Hunter improve the American postal system, initially advancing funds before recovering them and producing substantial revenue; Franklin is later removed.

• Franklin proposes a colonial union for defense and general purposes, wins congressional adoption, but fails to obtain provincial or Board of Trade approval.

• Pennsylvania's Assembly and proprietary governors dispute taxation and defense funding because proprietary instructions demand exemption of proprietary estates.

• Franklin maintains personal consultation and sociability with Morris while serving as the Assembly's principal writer against him.

• Franklin helps Quincy secure Pennsylvania's aid for the Crown Point expedition, bypassing a blocked tax bill with interest-bearing Loan Office orders.

• Franklin repairs Braddock's adverse view of Pennsylvania's Assembly and undertakes practical support for the expedition.

• Franklin recruits Pennsylvania wagons and horses to rescue Braddock's transport arrangements and avert compulsory military requisition.

• Franklin's personal guarantee for army transport exposes him to owners' compensation demands and lawsuits after the defeat; Shirley's payment orders avert personal ruin.

• Franklin procures relief supplies for poorly equipped subalterns and advances additional personal money for army provisions.

• Franklin's warning about ambush conflicts with Braddock's confidence in regular troops; the ensuing rout destroys the campaign and undermines American confidence in British military superiority.

• Franklin seeks the discharge of purchased servants recruited into the army, obtaining Braddock's cooperation but encountering Dunbar's broken promise.

• Franklin secures a voluntary militia law protecting Quaker liberty and promotes participation through a printed dialogue.

• Franklin commands a frontier force to construct protective forts after the Gnadenhut massacre, then transfers command to Clapham when the position is secure.

• Military honors shown to Franklin intensify proprietary hostility and provoke attempts to discredit him and remove him from postal office.

• Franklin develops and communicates electrical discoveries, overcoming initial ridicule and theoretical opposition to gain experimental confirmation and international recognition.

• Franklin distributes electrical demonstrations among friends and supports Kinnersley's paid lectures to relieve demands on his time and spread the experiments.

• Nollet challenges Franklin's electrical work; Franklin abandons a written reply in favor of experiments while others defend and verify his findings.

• Denny seeks Franklin's friendship and proprietary cooperation through promised rewards; Franklin offers public-spirited assistance but refuses favors and opposes renewed proprietary instructions.

• As Assembly agent, Franklin travels to England to obtain relief from proprietary instructions and defend Pennsylvania's position.

• Loudoun's mediation pressures the Assembly into compliance, and his repeatedly unfinished dispatches obstruct Franklin's voyage and other passengers' and merchants' affairs.

• Franklin seeks payment of his certified army-supply balance, but Loudoun delays and then directs him to the English treasury.

• After narrowly escaping lighthouse rocks, Franklin resolves to encourage additional American lighthouses if he returns alive.

• Franklin encounters competing constitutional claims over royal instructions and colonial law while pursuing the Assembly's grievances in London.

• Direct negotiations with the proprietaries stall amid deep disagreement, Paris's hostility, delayed legal responses and attacks on Franklin's conduct.

• Franklin defends the law taxing proprietary estates, securing its survival through an assurance of equitable treatment; an assessment inquiry confirms fairness and the Assembly thanks him.

• Franklin and Charles undertake to obtain subsequent legislation making the Council's recommended changes to the tax law.

Places

England, Ecton, Northamptonshire, Banbury, London, Boston, America, New England, Rhode Island, Library, New York, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Amboy, Long Island, The Kill, Europe, Burlington, Delaware, Newcastle, Newport, Barbadoes, Block Island, West Indies, Maryland, Gloucester, Oxford, New Jersey, Scotland, Paris, Passy, Holland, Ireland, Virginia, Georgia, Germantown, France, Great Britain, Spain, Louisburg, Carlisle, Jersey Market, Vauxhall, Westminster, The Strand, Connecticut, Albany, Crown Point, Alexandria, Frederictown, Lancaster, York, Cumberland county, Fort Duquesne, Frontenac, Niagara, Lancaster County, Trenton, Canada, Gnadenhut, Bethlehem, Minisink, Lower Ferry, West India islands, Marly, Sandy Hook, Halifax, Fort George, Charlestown, Falmouth, Scilly Isles, Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge, Wilton, Spring Garden, Province of Pennsylvania