(folk music)
- [Narrator] In 1718 at age 12, Franklin began the work
that would define the rest of his life.
He signed a 9-year apprenticeship,
legally indenturing himself to his older brother James,
who had opened a printing shop in Boston.
- Printing was an amazing business,
if you were both clever with your hands,
and good at thinking.
Printers were setting type upside down and backward,
and you have to be really hyper-literate
to understand how language works that way,
and to correct things as you go along and get it right.
- [Narrator] Handling the heavy sets of lead type
strengthened and broadened his shoulders.
Having access to books strengthened and liberated his mind.
- [Recounter] Often I sat up in my room,
reading the greatest part of the night,
when the book was borrowed in the evening,
and had to be returned early in the morning,
lest it should be missed.
And all the little money that came into my hands
was ever laid out in books.
- Here was a kid who only had two years
of formal education, ever.
So what did he do?
He taught himself how to write.
- [Narrator] He composed poetry,
including a ballad commemorating the recent killing
of Black Beard The Pirate.
He read articles from "The Spectator",
a London periodical.
And on paper salvaged from the print shop,
attempted to reproduce them by memory.
He stayed up late at night
and rose early each morning
to continue his reading before the shop opened.
"I was", Franklin said, "extremely ambitious."
In 1721, his brother James
decided to publish his own weekly newspaper,
"The New England Current."
From its inception, the paper courted controversy.
Its first issue attacked Cotton Mather,
Boston's preeminent preacher,
and the colony's strict and severe moral authority.
Mather called the newspaper, "Wicked",
"Filled with immorality and lies."
- What James Franklin does is he creates
the first real independent newspaper in America.
His paper in Boston is, quote, "Not published by authority."
All the others were given a stamp of authority.
- [Narrator] On April 2nd, 1722,
an essay appeared over the name of Silence Dogood,
who claimed to be a widowed woman from the countryside,
and who had lots of home spun wisdom
and sharp social critiques to share.
It was an immediate hit.
No one, including James Franklin,
had any idea that the real author was a teenage boy,
James' 16 year old brother, Benjamin,
who had secretly slipped the essay under the door.
More of Silence Dogood's articles began to appear.
She offered irreverent advice on funeral eulogies,
advocated fiercely for women's education,
and in one dispatch,
poked fun at Harvard,
and the wealthy parents who dreamed
of sending their children to the elite institution.
- [Recounter] Most of them consulted their own purses
instead of their children's capacities.
At Harvard, they learned little more
than how to carry themselves handsomely,
and enter room a genteely,
and from whence they return,
after abundance of trouble and charge,
as great Blockheads has ever,
only more proud
and self-conceited.
Hi, this is Ken Burns.
I hope you enjoyed that excerpt from the film David Schmidt
and I made exploring the extraordinary life
of Benjamin Franklin.
Here are some more clips you might like
and you can watch the entire "Benjamin Franklin" series
on the PBS Video App or at pbs.org.