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Benjamin Franklin and Apprenticeship in the 18Th Century by Susan E

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Benjamin Franklin and Apprenticeship in the 18Th Century by Susan E FEATURE Benjamin Franklin and Apprenticeship in the 18th Century by Susan E. Klepp enjamin Franklin learned to be a printer through the apprenticeship system. However, he gained his independence at age 17, not by completing his apprenticeship, but by running away from his master and leaving his family and hometown behind. He worked for wages in Philadelphia and London before setting out on his own. His life reflects Bboth the benefits and the potentials for conflict in this most common 18th-century form of vocational education. Background: Indenture of John Henry Coats as an apprentice cordwainer, May 23, 1750. Society Miscellaneous Collection. 6 Pennsylvania LEGACIES May 2006 Benjamin Franklin and Apprenticeship in the 18th Century One of the major responsibilities not more than one year and often of parents in the 18th century was less), housing, diet, clothing, A career choice to dispose of their children. This was opportunities to visit parents, had to be not as ominous as it might sound to freedom dues on completion of the modern ears. To “dispose” meant apprenticeship (tools of the trade, appropriate to the not to get rid of troublesome one or two changes of clothing, offspring, but to settle dutiful and/or cash) were all debated. The family’s social rank. children in a particular occupation, father and master then drew up a and to make sure that they acquired contract or indenture, which was As he grew more knowledgeable, his the skills that they would need to signed by all the parties involved. formal education in the trade would support themselves as adults. For The consent of the child as well as begin. By the end of the girls, rich or poor, this usually meant the parents had to be obtained, but apprenticeship, the 19 to 21 year old informal training in the domestic once the contract was in effect, the would know the basics of his chosen arts that would help bring offers of apprentice owed obedience to his craft. At the end of the contract, his marriage. For the wealthy the master and the master stood in the master would give him the disposition of male children place of the father, supporting and appropriate tools so that he might increasingly involved an academic advancing the apprentice as if he begin to earn his way. The former education, a tour abroad, and a were a son. apprentice could then hire himself clerkship with a prominent By serving a master, an out for wages as a journeyman while merchant or lawyer. For the poor it adolescent would learn the mysteries polishing his skills and eventually was being inured to a life of hard of his trade. A new apprentice did producing a master piece—for labor in dead-end, low-paying, and grunt work. He might sweep floors, example, a watch with the latest often dangerous jobs. For the technological innovations, a majority of colonists who lived tailored suit in the latest on farms, disposing of sons fashion, a pair of elaborate meant acquiring land or cash; shoes, or an extraordinary training in agriculture came cabinet. The master piece largely through daily practice, proved to fellow craftsmen finding a place to farm was the that the young man was difficulty. It was primarily the competent in the art of parents of the urban middling watchmaking, tailoring, sorts, those who were neither shoemaking, or joinery. He very rich nor very poor, who would then be admitted into disposed of their sons through the appropriate guild (trade apprenticeships. organization), and he could Traditionally, a boy of 12 establish his own workshop as to 15 years of age, having had a master, marry, and take on a basic education in reading, apprentices and journeymen of writing, and simple arithmetic, his own. This was the ideal. would express an interest in a This ideal, however, was specific trade. His father would rarely achieved in practice, negotiate the terms of the even in England. William apprenticeship with the Moraley, for example, was appropriate master craftsman apprenticed to his who charged a fee for training, watchmaker father in a town housing, clothing, and feeding without a watchmakers’ guild. the boy. The cost of an Franklin’s Youthful, Industrious Habits, working for his father, a soap boiler When his father died apprenticeship was and tallow chandler, from John Bigelow, Autobiography of Benjamin suddenly, Moraley had no proportionate to the status and Franklin (Philadelphia, 1868; illustrated and inlaid by Joseph M. P.and opportunity for further Emily Price, 1887). potential profitability of the training and few prospects. In trade. A silversmith might charge a clean tools, cart supplies. The new, the colonies conditions were more considerable fee for taking on an young, and often homesick irregular. The colonies could not apprentice, a shoemaker very little. apprentice might also be hazed by support the guild system. Because The initial fee, the length of the older apprentices in the shop. labor, and, in particular, skilled apprenticeship (usually around Gradually he would become more labor, was far scarcer in the New seven years), the additional formal acclimated and begin to learn World than in London, young men schooling to be provided (generally something of the trade by observing. could often find work without May 2006 Pennsylvania LEGACIES 7 Benjamin Franklin and Apprenticeship in the 18th Century completing an apprenticeship. father exercised his authority and year’s journeyman’s wages during Journeymen, if they had some access said no. If the first choice was better the last year of the term. Normally to capital, could set up as masters suited for young men who could by age 21 the apprentice would have without having to ask permission expect a sizable inheritance, the been free for two or three years, from a trade group and without second, shipping out as a cabin boy, earning wages on his own account. providing anyone evidence of would have been too closely Benjamin recalled that he “stood out mastering the necessary skills. associated with the fate of the sons some time, but at last was Benjamin Franklin’s memoir of of the poor. Seafaring would have persuaded and signed the his childhood illustrates other been entirely inappropriate for a Indentures.” He felt, however, that problems with the system. First, family whose ancestors had been he had been taken advantage of, there was the potential for conflict both freeholders and “ingenious” because, he recalled, “I was yet but between father and son over the workmen and writers for many 12 Years old,” and he still would son’s career choice. As a child, generations back in England. A have preferred to go to sea. A 12 Benjamin was intended for a career choice had to be appropriate year old might technically have the professional career in the clergy. He to the family’s social rank. right to consent to being bound as advanced through two levels of a Josiah Franklin was otherwise a an apprentice, but few children grammar school (a college moderately indulgent father. When could overcome societal expectations preparatory institution stressing the Benjamin turned 12 and indicated of duty and obedience to parents. learned languages of Greek and that he “dislik’d” his father’s trade If teenagers would be teenagers Latin) in a single year and would of candle and soap making, Josiah and inclined to get into trouble, it have gone on to study theology at took him to “see Joiners, was also the case that masters would Harvard College. However, his Bricklayers, Turners, Braziers, etc. at be masters and anxious to protect father worried about “the Expense their work.” Benjamin settled on their authority. The result was often of a College Education,” especially trying the cutler’s trade with a tension, anger, and resentment that, as he had 17 children to dispose of, relative, but an argument over the at least according to many accounts and pulled Benjamin from the fee ended that experiment. Finally, by former apprentices, often led to grammar school and placed him in a his father played on Benjamin’s mistreatment. Franklin deeply common school. At about 10 years “Bookish Inclination” and proposed resented his brother’s conduct, of age, Franklin expressed “a strong an apprenticeship with Benjamin’s especially the beatings that the elder Inclination for the Sea.” Again, his older brother James, a printer. James brother inflicted on his headstrong Franklin younger sibling. Benjamin credited seems not to his later “aversion to arbitrary have been authority” to this experience enthusiastic (although his aversion was not about taking strong enough to prevent him from on his becoming a slaveowner as soon as he younger could afford to buy human brother and property). Other apprentices fared wrangled an worse. Eliza Chadwick’s brother was especially apprenticed to a tailor in New York long-term City in the early 1790s. When he contract that was uncertain how to undertake a required nine new project, his master hit him on years of the head with a board, breaking his bound skull. He died a month later of his service, from injury, but the tailor was never age 12 to 21, prosecuted. John Fitch’s two with only one Connecticut masters apparently never struck him, although both Franklin family threatened to do so, but they never genealogical chart. taught him the trade of Benjamin and his watchmaking either. He left his last 16 siblings appear master early but he remained at the bottom of the contractually indebted for eight chart, though Benjamin’s circle pounds for the last four months of has been torn. service. If apprenticeships were Franklin Papers. ideally familial and supportive, in 8 Pennsylvania LEGACIES May 2006 Benjamin Franklin and Apprenticeship in the 18th Century returned to Philadelphia: he clerked If teenagers would be teenagers and for a merchant, did journeywork inclined to get into trouble, it was also with a printer, took on a partner, bought out his partner, failed to the case that masters would be masters repay a debt, callously tried to wrangle a large dowry during and anxious to protect their authority.
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