Scene I. The Dogood papers -- 1. The Franklins of Boston -- Brother James's newspaper -- The Mathers and a bitter quarrel -- Benjamin learns the printer's trade and conceives a literary character called Silence Dogood -- 2. Young Benjamin sees himself in print -- And says an abrupt farewell to Boston -- scene II. Franklin and electricity -- 3. Science in the eighteenth century -- Franklin and electricity, with some account of his life from 1723 to 1743 -- 4. Thunder gusts and electricity -- The Royal Society -- More letters to Collinson -- Franklin's book on electricity is published -- The kite experiment -- 5. Franklin is famous -- The Gold Medal and Abbé Nollet -- Franklin's friends in science -- He founds the American Philosophical Society -- scene III. The Albany Congress of 1754, and Franklin's plan of union -- 6. Franklin moves from the local to the continental scene -- The Indians and the French in North America -- Franklin writes his "short hints towards a scheme for uniting the Northern colonies" -- 7. Up the Hudson River by sloop -- Politics with the province of New York -- A notable sale of land and a treaty with the Iroquois -- 8. Franklin's plan -- Interlude. Franklin is fifty -- 9. A military excursion -- Franklin is named agent for Pennsylvania -- His enemies -- He embarks for London -- scene IV. Franklin in London 1757-1766 -- 10. London and the Penns -- A visit to Scotland -- The French are beaten in America -- Franklin returns briefly to Philadelphia, suffers political defeat, and embarks once more for London -- 11. The Stamp Act -- The colonies feel a new power -- Victorious Britain faces a dilemma -- Franklin maneuvers his position, and writes for the London newspapers -- 12. Franklin testifies in the House of Commons -- scene V. The making of a revolutionary -- 13. 1744 : the cockpit -- Franklin's humiliation -- The grand incendiary -- Afterword -- Bibliography -- Index.
|
