Pamphlet Series: The American Crisis

Overview
Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis is a series of Revolutionary War–era pamphlets, first published in December 1776 and continued through 1783, written to rally American resolve at moments of despair and doubt. Signed “Common Sense,” the opening number begins with the famous line “These are the times that try men’s souls,” framing the struggle as a moral test that would separate steadfast patriots from wavering “summer soldiers” and “sunshine patriots.” Across successive installments, Paine blends exhortation, political argument, military commentary, and practical advice, aiming to stiffen spines in the field, shame the hesitant, and clarify the stakes of independence.

Context
The first pamphlet appears amid the Continental Army’s bleak retreat across New Jersey after defeats in New York. Enlistments were expiring, supplies were short, and Loyalist confidence was rising. Paine had witnessed the reverses firsthand while serving as a volunteer and secretary to General Nathanael Greene. His words reached the rank-and-file directly; George Washington had the first Crisis read aloud to troops, helping to lift morale before the crossing of the Delaware and the victory at Trenton. The series would return during later crises, after setbacks, in the wake of British peace feelers, and during inflation and profiteering, to steady public confidence and keep the cause sharply defined.

Arguments and Themes
Paine insists that perseverance in a just cause magnifies the value of liberty: the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. He castigates tyranny as a universal wrong, not merely a local grievance, and portrays British rule as a system of arbitrary power wielded by ministers and generals who spurn the rights of the colonists. He denounces Loyalism as self-interest masquerading as prudence, arguing that neutrality in the face of oppression abets slavery.

Beyond denunciation, he urges concrete commitments, a longer-term army, greater discipline, better provisioning, and civic cooperation on taxes and supplies. He attacks price gouging and wartime profiteering as betrayals of the common cause, calling for public virtue to match battlefield courage. Paine also addresses specific audiences in some numbers: rebuking British commanders like William Howe for their proclamations, answering Quaker pacifists who counseled submission, and appealing to the people of Britain to see that coercion could not reconcile the empire.

Providence recurs as a theme, but not as fatalism. Paine argues that divine favor accompanies justice and effort; panic and hardship can reveal the strength of a free people. He casts the struggle as a defense of posterity, urging readers to bear present burdens so their children need not inherit chains.

Rhetoric and Style
The prose is direct, colloquial, and combative, mixing aphorism with vivid metaphor. Paine excels at moral contrast, freedom versus slavery, courage versus fear, public virtue versus private greed, and at turning British proclamations and defeats into arguments for American resolve. Biblical cadences and references lend authority, while practical reasoning keeps the language from abstraction. The blend of indignation and reassurance gives the series its distinctive pulse: indignation at injustice, reassurance that steadfastness will prevail.

Impact and Legacy
The American Crisis helped stabilize a fragile revolution. By crystallizing the moral logic of independence while responding to immediate reverses, it bolstered enlistments, stiffened civilian support, and framed setbacks as tests rather than verdicts. Read aloud in camps and reprinted widely in newspapers and broadsides, the pamphlets became part of the war’s emotional infrastructure. Their influence endured beyond victory: the series modeled how political writing can meet public emergencies with clarity, courage, and practical counsel, and its opening sentence remains a touchstone for democratic resilience in moments of peril.