Primary sourceNewspaper articleFirst half of the 18th century

Silence Dogood Essay No. 3, New-England Courant

Benjamin Franklin · First half of the 18th century

An early Silence Dogood essay by the teenage Franklin, marked with his own handwritten initials in his personal file of the newspaper.

Franklin's own marked copy proves he wrote the Silence Dogood essays under a pseudonym as a teenager.

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Scanned page of the New England Courant showing the heading 'To the Author of the New-England Courant', a handwritten 'B.F.' and '[No 3]' marking, a woodcut emblem of a ship with an H shield and figures on horseback, and the opening text of the Silence Dogood essay. — Benjamin Franklin (as 'Silence Dogood'), essay No. 3, New England Courant, early 18th century.

About this source

What it is

This is a page from the New England Courant, the newspaper published by James and Benjamin Franklin between 1721 and 1726. It carries the third essay in the Silence Dogood series. Franklin kept his own file of the paper, now held by the British Library, in which he marked anonymous articles with the authors' initials — his own initials, 'B.F.', appear beside this essay.

Why it matters

This item is direct physical evidence connecting Franklin to his teenage pseudonym. His handwritten initials confirm his authorship of the Silence Dogood letters, which he wrote secretly while working as an apprentice in his brother James's print shop.

Look closer

Why would Franklin want to keep a private record of which essays he had written?
What does the woodcut emblem at the top of the page suggest about the newspaper's style?
Why might a teenager choose to write as an older woman rather than under his own name?

This newspaper article is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Benjamin Franklin on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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