Thomas Paine was a very important writer and pamphleteer during the American Revolution. He was born on January 29, 1737, in Thetford, Norfolk, England, and died in New York on June 8, 1809. He was the son of a Quaker staymaker and wife. He recieved very little education since his family was so poor. When he was 13, he started working, and he went out in the ocean for a while when he was at the age of 19.
Paine arrived in America in 1774 with Benjamin Franklin as his sponsor, Paine's idol. He became a writer and his writings were about elaborated democratic principles, from his perspective, at the time of the American and French Revolutions. During 1775 to 1777, when he was editing the Pennsylvania Magazine, he tried hard to have great influence during a time of frustration and indesicion by his arguments for American Independence, first with his pamphlet, Common Sense.
Common Sense was published in January 1776. While writing it, he trailed John Locke's natural rights tenets. Jonh Locke was a British philosopher whose writings brought happiness and justified independence. Even though Paine's thoughts in his pamphlet were not his original, colonists were inspired by it and prepared them for expressing themselves in the Declaration of Independence. A Philadelphia physician named Benjamin Rush encouraged Paine in his writings. He did things like read the manuscript, suggest the title, secure critism from Benjamin Franklin, and arrange the publication by Robert Bell of Philadelphia. Common Sense became a sucess immediately. Paine estimated that " not less than one hundred thousand copies " were run off, and boasted that the pamphlet's popularity was " beyond anything since the invention of printing." Paine said that the effect on humans was "sudden and extensive." He said it was " read by public men, repeated in clubs, spouted in clubs." It started discussion about monarchy, the origin of government, English constitutional ideas, and independence.
Paine wrote Common Sense because he was influenced, inspired, and encouraged by many great people. He had a great mind and he used it well. Some of the things he said in his documents everyone may not have agreed with, but what he wrote was very good.
Sources:
The Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. 7, 1989
The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 15, 1992
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