In regards to my ranking of the founding fathers childhood’s from worst to best here. Benjamin Franklin comes in fourth.
Franklin had a relatively normal childhood, he was the tenth child of his father and came out of his second wife, Abiah Franklin. At eight years old young Benjamin Franklin started attending South Grammar School (Boston Latin) and showed an early talent moving from the middle of the class to the top of it within a year. The following year he attended George Brownell’s English School, a school for writing and arithmetic. He showed even more talent for writing and little for math. Franklin loved reading; he would borrow books from friends and save every penny to buy books. When he was 16 he became a vegetarian partly because he did not like to eat anything that was killed.
His father intended for Benjamin, as his youngest son, to serve in the church as a Minister but he showed no inclination for it. Unfortunately, Josian Franklin had to cut young Benjamin’s education short as he could not afford paying for it. At ten his father took him in as an apprentice in his soap and candle making shop. Benjamin was in charge of cutting wicks for candles, filling molds, attending the shop and running errands. His father wished for his young son to inherit the business when he retired, however, his son did not want to follow his father’s steps and wanted to be a sailor. He was employed in this father’s business for 2 years. In 1717 his brother James returned from England with a press and letters to set his printing business in Boston.
To prevent Benjamin from becoming a sailor, his father sent him to work with his brother James as an apprentice. He made him sign an indenture for his apprenticeship which bounded him until he turned 21 and only then he could earn wages. His brother was abusive because Benjamin showed talent. A lot of confrontations were taken to his father who usually was against James.
