Thomas Paine

13 Pages 3131 Words

hile on the ship, Paine caught scurvy, a debilitating disease caused by lack of vitamin c. When infected, symptoms include bleeding under the skin and especially under the nails. Paine recovered from the disease and landed in Pennsylvania in November of 1774. Paine kept his job as a tutor for a few months before going to work as a journalist for Pennsylvania Magazine. Paine published a few articles and was promoted to editor of the magazine. However as one historian puts it, “Aitken had undertaken in his prospectus to avoid matters of rel!
igious and political controversy, so that Paine had to confine the expression of his radicalism to social issues.” Paine commented on everything from slavery to social security during his stint as the editor. One historian notes,
“It is probable that a letter signed ‘A Lover of Order’ which appeared in the same issue as the first of these articles was also written by Paine. It consisted in an attack on the Pennsylvania Assembly for instructing its delegates to the Continental Congre...