Thomas Paine: The Influential American Rebel

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A man of many trades, he was an engineer, scientist and inventor ("Thomas Paine 's Achievements"). But he is most well known for his very influential writings such as “Common Sense.” Thomas Paine was one of the earliest american rebels due to his strong beliefs in human rights, the hold of royal control, taxation, and the thoughts of revolutionary. Even though most of his early life was marked by repeated failures, ("Thomas Paine.”) later on his rebellious ideas would influence the lives of many others and create a mass movement. His family’s circumstances would make Tom sensitive to inequality, oppression, and the possibility of reversals. (Kaye, Harvey J. page 17) But that is not all that pushed this man to do the amazing things he did. …show more content…

Yet Britain still tried to keep them under their power. One day, the Royal Crown is starting to run low on funds for war. They required money to support the efforts in battle. The solution they came up with was to raise taxes for the colonists ("Causes of the American Revolution."). The people of the colonies were outraged. Why? Not just because they were over taxed, but the fact that they weren’t consulted on the matter. England did not confer at all with the colonies on these terms. They just put their laws into place and forced the taxes to be raised. Expectedly, the colonists weren 't going to take this lightly. To avoid paying these taxes, they began to boycott British goods. Britain was actually losing money. They would spend the money on the imports and for them to be sent to the colonies, only for the people to reject them. Adventually the taxes were removed. Except, the act that increased taxes on tea. Many now know what follows, the Boston Tea Party. This was a raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. Boston colonists disguised as Indians and threw mass amounts of tea into the harbor as a sign of protest against the high taxation. This was one of the earliest revolutionary acts of that large scale. Thousands of dollars in damage done. Although thomas wasn’t involved in it, his writings inspired such acts. The power of the press is to be reckon

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