Biography Puppet Show: Benjamin Franklin

Hello!  My name is Benjamin Franklin.  You could call me Ben.

“Cough, cough.”

I’m 81 now.  When I was born, I ran in a poor family.  I was born on January 17, 1706.  I lived in a house on Milk Street in Boston.  I was very happy there.  I love to read and write.  When I was twelve, Pa said I should find some work.  I really wanted to be a sailor, but my oldest brother Josiah was a sailor and drowned.

Instead I became a printer.  My brother James was a printer, so I went to work for him.  James started a newspaper when I was fifteen.  I wanted to help him write too, but James and his friends wouldn’t let me.  He wouldn’t let me write anything because of my age.  I tried anyway.  I wrote a letter to “The New England Courant.”  I put it in the printshop door at night.  I had to sign it, so I called myself Silence Dogood.

My brother laughed at the name.  I wrote a lot more letters.  I kept calling myself Silent Dogood.  Silence Dogood is supposed to be an old lady in the country.

When I told them I really wrote them, they were surprised.  James didn’t like it.

So in the year of 1723 I sailed away.  Perhaps you could say I ran away.  I went to New York, and then I went to New Jersey.  I was supposed to go to Philadelphia.  I sailed on a boat and made it to land.  I walked fifty miles and found a boat going to Philadelphia.  They had to row the boat.

When I got there, I got three bread rolls, and I put them under my arms and ate one.  Then I thought we need a new fireplace, so I made one.  Then my son got sick and died.

I tamed lightning.  I took a kite and put a metal point on the end.  Then I put a key on the end.  I touched it.  It shocked me.  No literally, like a shock!

Next, I had a daughter.  Her name was Deborah.

Then we had to pay taxes.  William my son was in the government.  We wouldn’t pay those taxes!  I made them stop, and I was a hero.

My next thing was my cane was hollow.  I put oil in it, so I put my cane in the water and it calmed the water.

On April 19, 1775, we had a war.  I worked on the Declaration of Independence.  On July 4, 1776, the Congress agreed to sign it.  On October 1781, there was a big battle.  We won!

I came back to Philadelphia in the summer of 1785, but I died in April, 1790, in my sleep.  I was missed by all.