Thomas Paine, renowned writer and an almost forgotten founding father of America

Thomas Paine, renowned writer and an almost forgotten founding father of America

Thomas Paine, born in England in 1737, was a poor man with rich ideas about freedom. He believed the American colonies could become a new nation free from Great Britain. One of the great writers of his time, Paine’s writings inspired Americans to revolt against Britain. “The birthday of a new world is at hand,” Paine wrote in his most famous publication, Common Sense.

PAINE COMES TO AMERICA

As a young man, Thomas Paine met American statesman Benjamin Franklin in London. Encouraged by Franklin, Paine sailed for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1774. Once there, he picked up his pen in the cause of liberty. In one article he spoke out strongly against the practice of slavery, which was still common in America. Paine believed that people should be free to pursue their own lives.

Thomas Paine's Commonsense Pamphlet

PAINE PROMOTES AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

In January 1776, Paine published a 50-page pamphlet called Common Sense. The pamphlet sold over 500,000 copies! Great Britain, he wrote, unfairly used the colonies for money and manpower. Paine branded King George III as a tyrant who squashed American freedoms. Paine boldly called the colonies: “THE FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMERICA.”

Paine’s arguments helped many Americans decide to support independence from Great Britain. In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, in which the colonies officially broke away from Britain. The people of America then began eight long years of war.

During this war, the American Revolution (1775-1783), Paine wrote a series of pamphlets called The American Crisis. During the harsh winter of 1776-1777, he reassured Americans, “These are the times that try men’s souls … but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

LATER LIFE

Thomas Paine returned to Great Britain in 1787. Five years later, his book Rights of Man got him in trouble for again criticizing monarchies (rule by kings and queens). In 1792, Paine fled to France, a country in the middle of its own revolution (1789-1799). In France Paine was elected a deputy to the National Convention, and he generally voted with the moderate faction known as the Girondins. By favouring the exile, rather than the execution, of King Louis XVI, however, he offended Maximilien de Robespierre, the leader of the radical faction, and he was imprisoned from December 1793 until November 1794, three months after Robespierre’s downfall; Paine then regained his National Convention seat. Part I of his book The Age of Reason was published while Paine was still in prison; he published Part II in 1795 and a portion of Part III in 1807. Paine’s writing was seen as a promotion of atheism, despite the fact that Paine objected only to organized religion. The misinterpretation of this work resulted in Paine gaining ill repute as an atheist and in the alienation of most of his old friends. In 1802 Paine returned to the United States with the help of President Thomas Jefferson, and found that people there had a negative opinion of him as well. He died in New York City and was buried on his farm in New Rochelle. Ten years later journalist William Cobbett moved his remains to England; they were subsequently lost.