# The American Crisis — Character guide

> Key figures in The American Crisis by Thomas Paine.

- [Thomas Paine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/thomas_paine.md): Paine is the narrator and engine of The American Crisis, a man who traded private profit for the cause of independence and claimed he was made an author by America itself. His tension is between the patience a fractured,
- [America](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/america.md): America in these pages is a collective character: a people Paine addresses directly, flatters, scolds, and pleads with as a single soul. Its defining tension is between local loyalties and a national identity, between th
- [Britain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/britain.md): Britain appears here as a collective antagonist: the crown, the ministry, and the commissioners who offer terms while plotting seduction. Paine's portrait is of a power 'forever changing and forever wrong,' too distant t
- [George Washington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/george_washington.md): Washington is the steady hand of the Revolution, the general whose perseverance Paine holds up as proof that the cause is not lost even when the army is dissolving. His tension is with rivals and schemers — Gates's victo
- [Sir William Howe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/william_howe.md): Howe commands the king's forces in America and, in Paine's telling, is deceived by the Tories even as he deceives them — expecting thousands to flock to his standard with muskets shouldered. His flaw is a kind of overcon
- [Lord Howe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/lord_howe.md): Lord Howe is both naval commander and would-be negotiator, empowered to quiet the colonies by treaty if he cannot by force. His tension is that his commission depends on Americans believing his terms are generous, while 
- [General Burgoyne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/john_burgoyne.md): Burgoyne never speaks in these pages, yet his defeat haunts every argument Paine makes about what the American army might achieve. Paine uses him as a rhetorical weapon: if Burgoyne's captured army could force Howe into 
- [Silas Deane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/silas_deane.md): Deane operates in the diplomatic shadows, securing French support while his loyalty is questioned by political rivals back home. Paine treats his defense as a test of whether Americans will honor those who serve abroad o
- [Benjamin Franklin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/benjamin_franklin.md): Franklin represents the Revolution's most credible voice abroad, a man whose scientific fame and political cunning opened French coffers and hearts. Paine invokes him as evidence that America's cause attracts the best mi
- [Lord North](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/lord_north.md): North never appears directly, but his ministry's decisions frame every grievance Paine catalogues. He embodies the distant, unaccountable power that Americans rejected, a minister whose tax acts and coercive measures tur
- [Congress](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/congress.md): Congress is less a character than a chorus, its resolutions and proclamations echoing through Paine's arguments as evidence that Americans have built legitimate authority. Paine worries about its weakness, its dependence
- [Lord Shelburne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/lord_shelburne.md): British statesman and peace negotiator, addressed by Paine.
- [General Gage](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/general_gage.md): British commander in Boston early in the war.
- [General Conway](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/general_conway.md): British general and politician, criticized by Paine.
- [Cornwallis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/cornwallis.md): British general who surrendered at Yorktown.
- [George the Third](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/george_the_third.md): King of Britain, blamed for tyranny against the colonies.
- [Lord Chatham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/lord_chatham.md): British statesman who sympathized with American grievances.
- [General Gates](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/general_gates.md): American general who defeated Burgoyne at Saratoga.
- [Dr. Price](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/dr_price.md): British clergyman and supporter of American independence.
- [The Quakers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/the_quakers.md): Religious group opposed to war, rebuked by Paine for neutrality.
- [Tories](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/tories.md): American colonists loyal to Britain, denounced as traitors.
- [Hessians](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/hessians.md): German mercenaries hired by Britain to fight in America.
- [Providence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters/providence.md): Divine force invoked as guiding American cause.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_american_crisis_se/characters