Thomas Paine and Common Sense

Thomas Pain and Common Sense

By Janet Jameson

American Public University System

HIST101: American History to 1877

Thomas Paine was an influential political writer during the 18th and 19th century and could be named the Father of the American Revolution. Common Sense was a political pamphlet written by Paine in 1775 that swayed the American colonists toward revolution and independence from Britain during a critical time in America’s history. Who was Thomas Paine and where did he come from? What circumstances caused him to write Common Sense, and what effect did it have on the American colonists that led to the break from British rule and the American Revolution?

Thomas Paine was born on 29 January 1737 in Thetford, England. Paine’s father was a Quaker, stay-maker, and farmer. Paine was raised as a Quaker but was not fond of the Quaker life yet he enjoyed the education and excelled in math and science. When he turned 13 his father removed him from school to work with him in the stay-making business. Five years passed and Paine desired to travel and found the stay-making business constricting. At the age of 17 he ran away to join the crew of the privateer Terrible. Fortunately for Paine, his father intervened before the ship left port and the Terrible lost most of her crew at her next engagement. Paine returned to stay-manufacturing and married in 1759. He spent a short time as a Methodist preacher but unfortunately the year after his marriage his wife died and his stay-making business failed. He found work as an exciseman examining brewers’ casks in Grantham and in 1764 he was assigned to observe smugglers at Alford. Due to the low pay, many excisemen neglected to inspect everything that was delivered to the local warehouses. Paine was dismissed on the charge of neglect in 1765.[i]

After traveling for a short period of time Paine sued and won his position back as an excisemen pending an available post. Unfortunately there...