THE AMERICAN CRISIS

Thomas PAINE (1737-1809), son of a Quaker staymaker of Thetford; being dismissed as an excisemen in 1774, for agitating for an increase in excisement´s pay, at the suggestion of his friend Benjamin Franklin, he sailed for America, where he published in 1776 his pamphlet "Common Sense" and "The Crisis" (1783) encouraging American independence and resistance to England; he also wrote against slavery and in favour of the emancipation of women. In 1787 he returned to England and published in 17...