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Josiah Franklin - I was reading the letter you posted from Josiah to Benjamin .

Started by Peggy Ann Franklin, Smith on Sunday, March 29, 2015
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Peggy Ann Franklin, Smith
3/29/2015 at 9:09 AM

I often read between the lines and am wrong . I am seeing something here in the timeline and story of Benjamin . Usually someone does not change their ideologies unless life jolts . I tend to think his time back in England might have been a bit of a jolt . Dealing with a feudal system of social casting and coming to understand why Josiah needed to leave . There was a wealthy business man and the aristocrats wanted to know about his bloodline as they were in that mentality at the time . I am sure Ben may have suffered some humiliation and such over the subject .
I know what little exposure that I have had with those groups . Everyone walks in the door and the next question is where did you get your wealth and who are your ancestors . I have heard this myself and took note . Some old outdated thinking that wealth and bloodlines must run the same route . But Benjamin having been in America the son of a soap maker and candlemaker was used to be treated with respect I am sure .. and adoration in many cases as being a son of a respected member of that community . So I think this time in England was a jolt to brought him to enlightenment on the dregs of social and biological casting .
The Age where they woke up to the ills of the Divine Right of Kings .

Private User
3/30/2015 at 4:42 PM

Strictly speaking, they had woken up to "the ills of the Divine Right of Kings" in the 1640s, and done something drastic about it. The 18th century was when they started getting a clue that maybe the upper crust wasn't all that either and the "little people" mattered too.

Theresa Gayle Franklin
3/30/2015 at 7:48 PM

I think they were getting long before that ... in part that is what the Revolution was all about . It may have seems cruel for Benjamin Franklin to have his son thrown in jail for being a threat against Liberty ... but oddly I understand what he was trying to do . He was trying to get William to understand why he needed that constitutional protection . But apparently William did not get the message .

Theresa Gayle Franklin
3/30/2015 at 7:51 PM

We saw in the dark ages of europe what absolute powers and govenment religions can do .. and we saw in the holocaust what knowledge and science in the wrong hands can do . Eugenic at its worst and most evil .
Erica Howton C
3/31/2015 at 12:30 AM

Josiah Franklin came across as such an affectionate father, didn't he? Makes Ben's genius seem less unlikely.

From http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/index.htm

Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. 20,000 people attended the funeral of the man who was called, "the harmonious human multitude."

His electric personality, however, still lights the world.
Erica Howton C
3/31/2015 at 12:33 AM

Looks like there might be some genealogical material here

http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=2&page...
Erica Howton C
3/31/2015 at 12:39 AM

And the autobiography

http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=2&page...

Theresa Gayle Franklin
3/31/2015 at 3:53 AM

I just think Ben was a regular guy with a big imagination .. There were many acheivements and discoveries going on everywhere ... but usually one person takes the credit for many . That is just how it goes .

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