Paine’s Critics
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Many Loyalists and some other Americans believe Thomas Paine’s ideas go too far.
Many Loyalists and some other Americans believe Thomas Paine’s ideas go too far.
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Episodes presented in 4K UHD on supported devices. Corporate funding for THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION was provided by Bank of America. Major funding was provided by The Better Angels Society and...
Paine’s Critics
Clip: Special | 1m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
Many Loyalists and some other Americans believe Thomas Paine’s ideas go too far.
From
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MOMENTS: The Revolutionary War Card Game
Use your knowledge of Revolutionary-era moments to build a timeline of real historical events.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship♪ Narrator: Not all minds were changed.
Hannah Griffitts, the Philadelphia poet who in 1768 had urged American women to boycott British goods, was horrified.
Kamensky: The idea that to reform the Empire by not buying tea or imported cloth would lead to this crazy question of independence was an impossible thing for her to countenance.
Paine is where a lot of people get on the revolutionary road.
It's where she gets off.
Narrator: For some Americans, "Common Sense" confirmed their worst fears.
Vermont Loyalist John Peters, who continued to receive death threats from his Patriot neighbors, had reached a breaking point.
Voice: Often mobbed and once imprisoned by the malcontents, I quitted my family, property, and offices, and fled to Canada, to avoid personal danger and to support the British cause against its enemies.
[John Peters]
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Clip: Special | 4m 11s | Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, an explosive pamphlet that attacks monarchy. (4m 11s)
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Episodes presented in 4K UHD on supported devices. Corporate funding for THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION was provided by Bank of America. Major funding was provided by The Better Angels Society and...