Ben Franklin gets a girl Pregnant at 17

Well not quite. When he was 17 Ben Franklin had a falling out with his brother for whom he was apprenticing. Afterward, he resolved to run away from Boston to find employment in New York. Knowing that his family would try to stop him from leaving, he had to find a way to slip out of town undetected. He employed the help of his friend Collin who was able to secure for Ben secret passage on a boat headed to New York. He gained the sympathy of the captain under the pretense that Ben had gotten a girl pregnant and was now trying to slip away because the girl’s friends would try to make him marry. After hearing this the captain agreed to let Ben come on board in secret. Soon after Ben was In New York and on his own.

*the picture above is entitled Young Woman With a Turban by Jaques Loius Davis