Early Life in England At first glance the town of Thetford, located 60 miles northeast of London, might not look like much, but it is actually the birthplace of one of the most influential people in the American Revolution: Thomas Paine. On January 29, 1737 a baby boy was born to Joseph and Frances Paine. At the time no one knew what the boy would grow up to be, and no one would know for another 36 years! But the first 36 years of his life were marked by failure and tragedy, until he moved to the land of hopes and dreams: America. In his childhood, Thomas Paine had very little education, and his future looked very bleak. He attended 6 years of elementary school from ages 7 to 12, where he received the very little schooling he would ever get.
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So there he was, almost 23 years old and unemployed with a wife to support, but that wasn’t the worst of it. His wife got pregnant late 1759 and both she and their child died in childbirth. Some people would give up at this point, but Thomas Paine was strong and he kept going. He became an excise officer where he hunted smugglers and collected taxes on goods such as liquor and tobacco. But Thomas Paine was not very good at any of these jobs that he had in England, and it seemed like his life was one failure after another! Little did he know he would soon find his calling and turn his life around. In the March of 1771 he married his second wife, Elizabeth Ollive, and his life started to get back on track. The summer of 1772 marked an important moment for Thomas Paine, he published his first writing, an article called The Case of the Officers of Excise. This was a 21-page article trying to get parliament to give higher pay and better working conditions for him and his fellow excise officers, and he spent that winter handing out almost 4,000 copies of it to parliament and other …show more content…
Luckily, Benjamin Franklin’s physician was waiting for him and had Thomas Paine carried off the ship. Thomas Paine became a citizen of Pennsylvania soon after by taking an oath of allegiance, but he couldn 't enjoy it much because it took him six whole weeks to recover after the journey! After recovering his health he became the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine in January 1775, one of his first jobs he was good at and enjoyed. Over the next year he started writing and publishing pamphlets while continuing his job, until finally he started working on his most famous work of all: Common Sense After hearing about the first battles of the revolutionary war he started writing a 48-page long pamphlet discussing why America shouldn’t just rebel against taxation but should seize it’s independence from the clutches of England. This pamphlet would soon be read by thousands and would sway the undecided public to fight for America. Common Sense got into circulation in January 1776, where it was passed from person to person. It increased enthusiasm for the American cause, recruitment for the continental army, and spreading the idea of a free and happy United States of
So there he was, almost 23 years old and unemployed with a wife to support, but that wasn’t the worst of it. His wife got pregnant late 1759 and both she and their child died in childbirth. Some people would give up at this point, but Thomas Paine was strong and he kept going. He became an excise officer where he hunted smugglers and collected taxes on goods such as liquor and tobacco. But Thomas Paine was not very good at any of these jobs that he had in England, and it seemed like his life was one failure after another! Little did he know he would soon find his calling and turn his life around. In the March of 1771 he married his second wife, Elizabeth Ollive, and his life started to get back on track. The summer of 1772 marked an important moment for Thomas Paine, he published his first writing, an article called The Case of the Officers of Excise. This was a 21-page article trying to get parliament to give higher pay and better working conditions for him and his fellow excise officers, and he spent that winter handing out almost 4,000 copies of it to parliament and other …show more content…
Luckily, Benjamin Franklin’s physician was waiting for him and had Thomas Paine carried off the ship. Thomas Paine became a citizen of Pennsylvania soon after by taking an oath of allegiance, but he couldn 't enjoy it much because it took him six whole weeks to recover after the journey! After recovering his health he became the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine in January 1775, one of his first jobs he was good at and enjoyed. Over the next year he started writing and publishing pamphlets while continuing his job, until finally he started working on his most famous work of all: Common Sense After hearing about the first battles of the revolutionary war he started writing a 48-page long pamphlet discussing why America shouldn’t just rebel against taxation but should seize it’s independence from the clutches of England. This pamphlet would soon be read by thousands and would sway the undecided public to fight for America. Common Sense got into circulation in January 1776, where it was passed from person to person. It increased enthusiasm for the American cause, recruitment for the continental army, and spreading the idea of a free and happy United States of