How Did Thomas Paine Influence Common Sense

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Thomas Paine, a political activist and influential writer, helped influence the New World patriots in the American Revolution with his writings and famous pamphlet called “Common Sense.” This helped influence many American patriots to gain their independence from Great Britain and become their own nation. This pamphlet was an extremely powerful message for the American people. He helped shape the ideas that showed the patriots that the New World could live in a Republic-Democratic nation without worrying about a monarchy in Britain. He reached a large audience and changed how people thought. Independence from Britain became a necessity. This essay will go over the following topics: The life of Thomas Paine, the pamphlet “Common Sense,” the …show more content…
Thomas Paine did not know how to do the following: read, write, and do math because he did not have a formal education. When Thomas Paine was thirteen, he worked as a stay maker with his father, Joseph Paine, to make ropes used on ships. Later he worked as a tax collector. As a tax collector Paine collected liquor and tobacco taxes, and he also hunted smugglers. His life in England was not a good one. He suffered from not doing well with his work and personal losses. In 1760, Thomas Paine’s wife and child died during childbirth, and he also watched his rope business fail. In 1774, two years after publishing his first political writing a twenty-one page article about higher pay for tax collectors called “The Case of the Officers of Excise,” Thomas Paine was fired from his job at the excise office. Soon after this happened, he met Benjamin Franklin who convinced him that he should move to America. Thomas Paine followed his advice and went to America with letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin. In January 1775 in Philadelphia he worked at his first job in the New World for Robert Aitken’s political and radical …show more content…
However, the following year Thomas Paine accused a member of Congress of trying to personally profit from French aid. While revealing this scandal, Thomas Paine mentioned secret negotiations with France. Therefore, these events led to Thomas Paine’s expulsion from the Committee of Foreign Affairs in 1779. Thomas Paine quickly found a job as a clerk at the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. Thomas Paine soon found that the American troops were unpleased with how low their payments were and little supplies they had. Thomas Paine started a fundraiser in the United States and in France to raise the needed supplies. A year later Thomas Paine wrote “Public Good” calling for a national convention to replace the Articles of Confederation with a strong government under a continental constitution. In April 1787, Thomas Paine headed back to England, where Paine rapidly became interested in the French Revolution. When Thomas Paine published the book “Rights of Man” inspired by Edmund Burke’s book “Attack on it.” The British government banned the book and indicted Thomas Paine for treason. However, Thomas Paine was already on his way to France when the indication was sent out and avoided prosecution. Thomas Paine was sent to prison from December 28, 1793 to November 4, 1794, there he published “The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology” in 1794. After his release

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