Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England on February 9th 1737. He immigrated to Philadelphia in late 1774, where he quickly became friends with advocates of the American cause like John Adams and Dr. Benjamin Rush, and it was actually Rush that persuaded Paine to write a pamphlet supporting American Independence.1 The pamphlet that Paine wrote Common Sense, first appeared in January of 1776 and it became one of the most successful and widely read political writings in colonial America’s history selling some estimated 150,000 copies.1 He began this influential work “not with a recital of colonial grievances but with an attack on the principals of hereditary rule and monarchial government,”2 and he drew upon the colonists experience to make
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It was during the French Revolution that Paine published the Rights of Man, which stands as one of the fundamental texts of modern democracy.4 At the close of the French Revolution after helping draft the new French constitution he voted to save the life of the former French King Louis XVI, because even though he may have oppressed the French people he owed him for his immense help he gave to the American revolutionary cause.5 This vote he knew would make him so unpopular that it would lead to his own persecution and so he went quickly to work on a Pamphlet about revealed religion, a topic so taboo it could only have been done by a man who knew his time was almost up.4 And so with only six hours before being arrested he handed the first half of his The Age of Reason to a confidant, and while he was in prison he wrote the other half.5 He argued that men could not really be free or fight for their freedom if they were not free to speak and think for themselves and that the alter and throne work together to oppress the masses, and he went on to argue for deism and promoted rationalism and free thought.5 Luckily for Paine, future president James Monroe used his clout to get Paine released and In 1802 Paine returned to America where he died in 1809, and even though his writings had influenced the world, because of his
It was during the French Revolution that Paine published the Rights of Man, which stands as one of the fundamental texts of modern democracy.4 At the close of the French Revolution after helping draft the new French constitution he voted to save the life of the former French King Louis XVI, because even though he may have oppressed the French people he owed him for his immense help he gave to the American revolutionary cause.5 This vote he knew would make him so unpopular that it would lead to his own persecution and so he went quickly to work on a Pamphlet about revealed religion, a topic so taboo it could only have been done by a man who knew his time was almost up.4 And so with only six hours before being arrested he handed the first half of his The Age of Reason to a confidant, and while he was in prison he wrote the other half.5 He argued that men could not really be free or fight for their freedom if they were not free to speak and think for themselves and that the alter and throne work together to oppress the masses, and he went on to argue for deism and promoted rationalism and free thought.5 Luckily for Paine, future president James Monroe used his clout to get Paine released and In 1802 Paine returned to America where he died in 1809, and even though his writings had influenced the world, because of his