**Target:** American leader, colonial thinker, printer, writer, scientist  
[founded]: Junto club; voluntary militia association for provincial defense; Pennsylvania Hospital; academy in Pennsylvania; The Society of the Free and Easy; printing office in Philadelphia  
[values]: Colonial defense & unified governance; time as most precious resource; intellectual debate but avoids disputes; fair treatment of civilians; financial independence; human element in biographical accounts; frugality; honesty & usefulness; public benefit over personal vanity  
[experienced]: Alarm at divergent English and American constitutional views; military command; near-shipwreck on rocks off Scilly Isles; financial loss from military contract defaults; raising an academy; diplomatic communication with colonial assemblies; Socratic method of argument  
[avoided]: Sea career despite aspiration & excellence in swimming, water rescue, boat management; positive, dogmatical manner of speech; proprietary favours; disputes; tallow-chandler trade  
[owns]: Fifteen pistoles  
[studies]: The Spectator essays; Spanish language; moral philosophy; electrical experiments; success stories and life narratives of famous men; colonial laws; diplomacy; memory; industry & frugality  
[practices]: Careful observation & experimentation; written advocacy for reform; documentation of important conversations; legal argumentation & negotiation; recruiting military troops; persuasive writing & public mobilization; Socratic method of argument  
[excels_at]: Reading, performing electrical experiments, printing & typesetting, legal argumentation, predicting military outcomes, memory, writing newspaper pieces, recruiting & raising military troops, diplomatic communication, giving counsel to governors on administrative matters  
[married_to]: Deborah Read  
[received]: Medal from the Royal Society  
[works_at]: Common council and alderman of Philadelphia; Watts's printing-house; Agent of Pennsylvania in London; The Pennsylvania Gazette; printing partnership in Charleston, South Carolina  
[believes]: God as fountain of wisdom; Deism; female education in accounting essential practical knowledge; colonial laws made by Assemblies with king’s assent; early easiness of circumstances & acquisition of fortune to industry & frugality; example of wise and strong friends helps meet personal difficulties; mere speculative conviction of virtue insufficient, contrary habits must be broken  
[manages]: Printing partnership in Charleston, South Carolina  
[raised_in]: Boston, New England  
[raised_by]: Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger  
[dislikes]: Disputes, tallow-chandler trade  
[friends_with]: Joseph Breintnal; Samuel Keimer; James Franklin (brother)  
[struggles_with]: Order  
[prioritizes]: Obligation & loyalty to partners; provincial credit & monetary stability; Silence