The American Crisis

The main idea of Pain's reading is that the war in Europe is unneccessary and stupid. He disagrees with  the fact that Britain likes to tax and complains about Britains taxing: "Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right(not only to TAX) but 'to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER' and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there no such a thing as slavery upon earth"(51). He feels that Britain restricts their citizens freedom way too much by taxing them. He referrs to the citizens as "slaves" because they recieve taxes for most of the things they buy. In Paines mind the only person that has the power to tax is God. He believes that people, because they have to depend on the government too much, because they are "slaves" have absolutely no freedom. This article when it was written probably served as a huge motivator to not be apart of Britain because Paine complains of the taxes in this piece. Throughout the piece he constantly motivates the audience that will read this to hate Britain and disagrere with anything that they do. If i was reading this wehn it was written i would have also been motivated to fight against Britain with all my possible power. When talking about the supposed status of the America after the British invaded he claims America looks like: "a ravaged country-a depopulated city-habitations without safety, and slavery without hope-our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-housesfor Hessians" (54). Paine doesnt like the presence of Britain and encouraged American citizens to jump on the bandwagon of hate towards Britain.