1. How did Paine use concepts of equality, reason, and nature to criticize the legitimacy of monarchical government and British control of the colonies?
QUESTIONS FOR READING AND DISCUSSION
1. How did Paine use concepts of equality, reason, and nature to criticize the legitimacy of monarchical government and British control of the colonies?
2. What arguments did Paine give for independence? How were his observations about monarchy connected to his reasons for independence? Why did he propose that law should be “King of America”?
3. Why did he believe that attempts at reconciliation were “a fallacious dream”?
4. Independence, according to Paine, would “expel from the continent, that barbarous and hellish power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us” and would create “an asylum for mankind.” In what sense would an independent America be an asylum, and for whom?
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