Thomas Paine was one of the most important minds in American History. Through his pamphlet Common Sense, he revolutionized political writing, by bringing his message to the most humble of people. He did so by making a clear, concise document, which could be understood by anyone.

Thomas Paine was born on January 29th 1737 in Norfolk England. His father, Joseph, was a Quaker staymaker (he made women’s corsets) and also had a small farm so he could afford to send Tom to grammar school. Tom’s mother was Francis Cooke, an Anglican, who seemed to have little or no influence on Tom’s upbringing.

Tom stayed in school until he was sixteen when he left home to join the privateer ship The Terrible, commanded by a fellow named Captain Death. Needless to say, his father was very concerned about his career choice, so he tracked Tom down and convinced him to come back home and continue his staymaker apprenticeship. Tom stayed with his apprenticeship for about three years until the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, whereupon he ran away and joined the privateer The King of Prussia. This would prove to be another failed career choice seeing as that he served on the ship for a max

Here one can see another appeal to a higher power from how he says that men are all created equal. Paine does so to prove a point, that simply because one man is a good ruler, doesn’t mean his son will be one also.

In 1772, Paine published his first political writing, The Case of the Officers of Excise. It was a pamphlet speaking on behalf of him and his fellow customs officers. His complaint was that customs officers were greatly underpaid, and therefore had less motivation to work hard and had more inclination to accept bribes. While he was not the only one funding this pamphlet, with the cost of publishing, he lost money on it. Here one can see how passionate Tom was about getting his ideas across, since he was willing to lose a substantial amount of money, which he had little of. The pamphlet very likely cost Paine his job though there is no official record saying so. Nevertheless, Paine was fired and went bankrupt. Shortly afterwards, he and his wife separated. Here he was at the age of thirty-six, broke, and alone, with no idea he would be one of the most influential minds in American history.

In 1774, Paine returned to London where he was introduced to another one of the greatest minds in American history, Benjamin Franklin. They met through a mutual acquaintance, George Lewis Scott. Anyways, Franklin quickly persuaded Paine to go to America. Franklin spoke with his son-in-law, Richard Bache, and set Paine up with a job as a tutor. Within three months of returning to London, Paine was on a ship headed for America. While on the ship, Paine caught scurvy, a debilitating disease caused by lack of vitamin c. When infected, symptoms include bleeding under the skin and especially under the nails. Paine recovered from the disease and landed in Pennsylvania in November of 1774. Paine kept his job as a tutor for a few months before going to work as a journalist for Pennsylvania Magazine. Paine published a few articles and was promoted to editor of the magazine. However as one historian puts it, “Aitken had undertaken in his prospectus to avoid matters of rel!

igious and political controversy, so that Paine had to confine the expression of his radicalism to social issues.” Paine commented on everything from slavery to social security during his stint as the editor. One historian notes,

Paine is not known for using religion as a basis for argument, but he certainly knows how to use it to build anti-British, anti-monarchy sentiment.

Some topics in this essay:
Common Sense, Mary Lambert, Thomas Paine, Holland Swisserland, Revolution Paine, Officers Excise, Basically Paine’s, Magazine Paine, William Mary, American Revolution, common sense, thomas paine, american history, minds american, involved politics, minds american history, french revolution, american revolution, pamphlet common sense, career choice, continental congress, king prussia, reason ill remembrance,