In the aftermath of heavy British tax levies and the shock of the Boston Massacre, the situation in the American colonies grew more incendiary. Helping to fan the flames was the eloquent orator Patrick Henry, who rose from backwoods obscurity to marry into money and make the first open "call to arms." Meanwhile, Benjamin Franklin, actually slow to join the colonists' cause, was in London -- desperately attempting to patch things up with King George. Across the Atlantic, George Washington, a retired soldier with a spotty military record, maneuvered for command of the rebel forces, while an alcoholic essay writer named Thomas Paine published "Common Sense," one of the period's most famous, and inflammatory, tracts.