Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

== Early Life ==

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts, the fifteenth of seventeen children born to Josiah Franklin, a poor English candlemaker. His formal education was limited—ending at age ten—but Franklin was an avid reader who taught himself to become a skilled writer through careful study of ''The Spectator'' and other publications.<ref name="history">{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/articles/benjamin-franklin |title=Benjamin Franklin |publisher=History.com |access-date=December 22, 2025}}</ref>

In 1718, at age twelve, Franklin was apprenticed to his older brother James, a Boston printer. By sixteen, he was contributing essays to his brother's newspaper under the pseudonym "Silence Dogood," a fictional widow whose witty observations on Boston society became popular with readers. However, tensions with his brother led the seventeen-year-old Franklin to run away from his apprenticeship in 1723, eventually making his way to Philadelphia.