Journal 14 - Franklin's Apprentice

If I was alive during the Colonial times and Ben Franklin chose me to be his apprentice, then I would be a happy person. Franklin would open up so many possibilities. He was a Renaissance man and I would learn many different trades. Plus I could have the opportunity to have my name preserved in history alongside Franklin as the co- inventor or assistant of the stove, or the library, or the lightening rod, or the fire department, or anything from the long list of things that he invented. Franklin accomplished so much during his life time. Just to meet him would be an honor. If I was his apprentice, I could have attended the Constitutional Congress with him as his aide because he was elderly and might not have been able to keep adequate notes or write down what the different people were saying. Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence! To have witnessed all of the men signing that, and possibly touching one of the most important pieces of paper in the United States of America's history would have been amazing!

But I am a girl. I would have been lucky during Colonial times to get a formal education that might rival one of my male peers. To be Ben Franklin's apprentice? Ha! Women could not hold jobs, so what was the need to have an apprenticeship for? Even after the Revolutionary War, women could not vote or hold a position in the government. The only right that women had was to divorce their husbands and to own land in some states. Maybe I could befriend Franklin's apprentice and hear all about it from him. Or if I married an influential man who knew Franklin, then maybe under the radar I could talk to Franklin and learn from him or assist him in his projects. But if I were to chose a man to have an apprenticeship with during Colonial times, it would be Franklin as had the most variety with his talents and was remembered in history for many different things (as opposed to Alexander Hamilton who was remembered for being a Federalist and for being the genius behind the American banking system).