Summary: A Patriot And A Land Becomes A Nation

A Man Becomes a Patriot, and a Land Becomes a Nation The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S. Wood illustrates the shift from dependence upon the “mother land” of Britain, to the independence of a newly born nation, and the effects these changes had socially, economically, and politically for the people of this era. An evident division of the people emerged during the early 1700s, and provided little diversity and social mobility amongst the colonists. The rich, though a minority, triumphed over the majority, who were poor. Benjamin Franklin was born into a large and modest family, the fifteenth of seventeen children; he grew up underprivileged, but with hard work and determination, made it further than anyone in his social standing could have ever dreamed. Franklin’s father was a candle maker, which was considered “one of the lowliest of the artisan crafts. (Wood 17)” When he was of a young age, his father decided that a formal education would be too expensive, and entered him instead into an apprenticeship as a soap and candle maker.
Apprenticeships
At the very bottom of the chain were the slaves. Newly popular due to their free and forced labor, these people were denied any rights whatsoever, and were regarded as more of objects and property than human beings. Franklin called this practice and “atrocious debasement of human nature,” and demanded that abolitionists not only work for the end to slavery, but also work “to instruct, to advise, and to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances. (Wood 227)” In 1790, Franklin signed a motion to request the abolition of slavery in the United States. Though it failed, he was substantially different than when he was a younger man who valued money over morality. Franklin died in the spring of that year, and all of France and America felt the tremendous