The American Crisis

Thomas Paine wrote The American Crisis during the Revolutionary War, a pivotal time in American history. His first essay, The Crisis I, was published in December 1776, several months after the American Congress declared independence from Britain on July 4th, 1776. By this time American forces had been at war with Britain for over a year. As Paine’s essays explain, Americans’ desire for independence was motivated by their anger at Britain’s colonial policies and the uneasy dynamic between their communities and the British monarch.

British policies for the American colonies, created and enforced by the British monarch and parliament, were designed to maximize British profits. By the end of the “Seven Years War” in 1763, during which Britain battled both French forces and Indigenous nations for territory in North America, Britain was badly in debt. In order to raise funds, Britain imposed a series of taxes on the American colonies, which many colonists greatly resented. The British also limited where Americans could settle land and demanded control of any negotiations with Indigenous communities. Furthermore, in order for the colonies’ representatives to enact policies, they first needed the approval of King George III. Many Americans were increasingly angered by these restrictions and taxes and protested and petitioned these policies. British troops violently subdued these protests, creating further distrust between them and the American colonists.

It was in this tense climate that the first Continental Congress met in September of 1774 and sent an “Olive Branch” petition to King George III, asking him to discontinue these burdensome policies. The petition assured him that the colonies would continue to respect British rule if the British repealed certain laws Americans found intolerable. However, the King did not respond to this petition, but instead released a proclamation stating that the colonies were in open rebellion against Britain. Some Americans formed militias, and when British troops marched on Lexington and Concord in April 1775 to seize American weapons store, they engaged in a violent confrontation with American militiamen, and The Revolutionary War officially began.