Ms. A Who Am I? (Example)

I was born in Thetford, England on January 29, 1737.  I wasn’t the greatest of students, and so I tried my hand at a career on the sea.  When that didn’t work out, I became a tax officer in England.  Then, by chance, in London I met a man named Benjamin Franklin.  Have you heard of him?  In 1774 Mr. Franklin helped me emigrate to Philadelphia in the American colony of Pennsylvania.  There I became a journalist and as a journalist I was very successful and became very famous.

When I was living in the colonies I found that I disagreed very strongly with the taxes and other anti-colony laws King George III and his Parliament passed.  I felt the Intolerable Acts were indeed intolerable and in 1776 I wrote Common Sense, which was a call to arms for the colonists and a strong defense of the American Revolution.  My pamphlet reached common farmers as well as intellectuals.  Not everyone was happy with what I had written, and some even called for my arrest.  Then between the years 1776-1783 I produced The Crisis, which helped to inspire the Continental Army even as the battles were difficult.  There I wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

I would describe myself as intelligent, controversial, and rebellious.  I don’t know if I would consider myself a hero, but I did help to inspire the colonists to rebel against Britain and form a great nation, the United States of America. 

Who am I?