Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk on January 29th, 1737. He was born to Quaker parents. His father, Joseph Paine was a stay-maker and his mother was the daughter of an attorney. After leaving his hometown Thomas eventually switched his career from being a stay-maker like his father to that of a customs official. In 1768, he was assigned to Sussex where he lived for the next six years. Throughout his traveling years from place to another, Paine made sure he educated himself. He bought books and scientific equipment from his scanty earnings and attended lectures. In 1770’s he found his first case and he indulged himself in this cause with a passion. Excise officers throughout Britain were appealing for better salaries and so Paine joined …show more content…
The first of these papers which were later published together as The American Crisis in 1776 called out to all Americans as well as George Washington and his troops who were fighting the cold in New Jersey. The opening lines of this are still the most quoted lines of Paine. He wrote that all Americans must continue, must hurt, he wrote, for all history is awaiting the result of the battle. “These are the times that try men’s souls…” is his most quoted work. Thomas Paine’s first Crisis was the most dramatic of course. At this time Paine had gone to New Jersey after the signing of the Declaration of independence, which he believed was the fulfillment of his plea in Common Sense for total independence. Thomas Paine went to Fort Lee where Washington’s army sat defeated and tired. He lived with these men, spoke to them and begged them not to give up. An army that was of twenty thousand men at the beginning, now only consisted of a few hundred who were just resigned and tired. That is when Thomas Paine wrote his first American Crisis. Washington was immensely moved by this piece and he instructed that it was to be read out loud to the army. This was sold as a pamphlet and memorized by thousands. Although some of his later Crisis Papers had much less impact, his first one had an astounding effect on the fighters for independence and the revolution came to an end later in