Thomas P. Slaughter is Professor of History at Rutgers University. He is the author of three prize-winning books:
The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution (1986); Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and
Racial Violence in the Antebellum North (1991); and The Natures of John and William Bartram (1996). He also edited
the Library of America edition of The Writings of William Bartram (1996). His books have won the National Historical
Society Book Prize, the American Revolution Round Table Award, the Society of the Cincinnati Award, and the New
Jersey Council for the Humanities Distinguished Author Award. He is a former fellow of the National Endowment for
the Humanities, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,
and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center. He is currently writing two books, Vision Quest: Lewis and Clark's Search for
the Known and The Snake in the Garden and Snakes in the Grass: History and Culture in Early America.
Review
"This should be a very attractive book for students in American history courses. Not only does Tom Slaughter
do a brilliant job in the introduction in making Paine out to be a very believable, human, though flawed person,
but also he does a masterful job in helping the reader understand the process through which Paine became radicalized.
In addition, Slaughter has made an excellent selection of Paine's essays that round out a picture of an intriguing,
but lesser known, American revolutionary."
-- James Roger Sharp, Syracuse University
Bedford, Freeman, & Worth Web Site, January, 2002
Summary
Foreword
Preface
A Note on the Texts
PART I. INTRODUCTION: THOMAS PAINE'S AMERICA
Young Tom Paine
Growing Up
Excise Man
Passages
Slavery
British Army
Marriage
Common Sense
Publication and Circulation
Equality
Biblical Authority
The Economy of Freedom
Intellectual Influences
Propaganda
The Forester
Radical Politics
The American Crisis
Thomas Paine's Future
PART TWO. DOCUMENTS
African Slavery in America, 1774
A Serious Thought, October 18, 1775
A Dialogue between General Wolfe and General Gage in a Wood Near Boston, January 4, 1775
Thoughts on Defensive War, July 1775
Reflections on Unhappy Marriages, June 1775
Common Sense, January 10, 1776
The Forester, Number 1, 1776
The American Crisis, Number 1, December 19, 1776
APPENDIXES
A Thomas Paine Chronology
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
