Early Life and Education
Thomas Paine was born on February 9, 1737, in Thetford, a town in Norfolk, England. His parents were Joseph and Frances Pain.
From 1744 to 1749, Paine attended the Thetford Grammar School.
Around the time he was 12 or 13, he took on a 7-year apprenticeship working for his father making stays for corsets. He became a master stay-maker and opened his own shop in Sandwich, Kent.
Death of First Wife
On September 27, 1759, he married Mary Lambert. Mary became pregnant, went into labor and both she and the baby died.
Early Business and Political Career
During the next few years, he went from job to job, working as an excise officer, stay-maker, servant, and minister. On February 19, 1768, he was hired as a schoolteacher in Lewes, East Sussex. He was introduced to the intellectual group Society of Twelve by Samuel Ollive. Ollive owned the Bull House, which was the tobacco shop that Paine was living above at the time. On March 6, 1771, Paine married Samuel’s daughter, Elizabeth.
Meeting Benjamin Franklin
In 1772, Paine published the 21-page pamphlet The Case of the Officers of Excise, which petitioned Parliament for better pay and working conditions for excise officers. On April 14 he sold his possessions to pay his debts and avoid debtor’s prison. On June 4 he separated from his wife and moved to London. Then, in September, he was introduced by a friend to Benjamin Franklin. Franklin suggested he should go to America and provided him with a letter of recommendation. Paine left for the Colonies in October and arrived in Philadelphia on November 30, 1774.
Common Sense
On January 10, 1776, he published the 47-page pamphlet, Common Sense, which urged Americans to declare their independence and to replace the monarchy with a republic. Paine believed that democracy is the only form of government that can guarantee the natural rights of man. Common Sense was an immediate success, selling 120,000 copies in the first three months, and three times that over the next three years. Later that same year, John Adams published Thoughts on Government in response to Common Sense. Adams called Paine’s work a “crapulous mess” and disagreed with Paine on many points. Thoughts on Government advocated a more conservative approach to republicanism.
The American Crisis
In December 1776, he began publishing his series of pamphlets called The American Crisis. The first of these pamphlets begins with the line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Working as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1780, he wrote the preamble to the first bill emancipating slaves by an American legislature.
Life After the Revolutionary War
After the war, Paine worked as a civil engineer and designed an iron bridge. In 1787, he went to Europe to obtain the endorsement of his bridge from the scientific community. From 1787 to 1790 he traveled between England and France. In 1791, he published the first part of the Rights of Man in response to Edmund Burke’s criticism of the French Revolution. Paine’s hope was that Rights of Man would be a British version of Common Sense. He published the second part in February 1792, and by 1793 more than 200,000 copies had been sold. Because Rights of Man encourage the people to overthrow the British monarchy, he was tried and convicted for treason in December 1792.
In the National Convention, he aligned himself with the moderate Gironde group, but when the Jacobins seized power they revoked his citizenship. He was imprisoned from December 1793 until September 1794. During this time, he wrote the first part of the Age of Reason, which presented his thoughts on deism and renounced organized religion, especially Christianity. Paine was freed in 1794 due to the efforts of James Monroe, the U.S. Minister to France.
In 1796, Paine published the second part of Age of Reason, but he also wrote a letter to George Washington that attacked his fellow Founding Fathers and was highly critical of Washington’s dealings with France. When Paine returned to America in 1802, it was to a cool reception.
Death
Paine died on June 8, 1809, at the age of 72 in Greenwich Village in New York City. The building that stands at 59 Grove Street today bears a plaque noting that it is on the site of the place where Paine died. His obituary in the New York Citizen included, “He had lived long, did some good and much harm.”Paine was originally buried in New Rochelle, New York, but his bones were dug up by William Corbett. Corbett took the bones back to England where he planned to give them a heroic reburial, but that never happened. The bones of Thomas Paine were in Cobbett’s possessions when he died.
Significance
Thomas Paine is significant because he wrote Common Sense, which was extremely popular and written in a way that most Americans could understand and identify with. He used a plain, straightforward style and often quoted verses from the Bible.
Paine also served in the Continental Army and served on committees during the Second Continental Congress.
Founding Father
Thomas Paine is a Founding Father because he wrote the influential pamphlet, Common Sense.
Thomas Paine: In Four Minutes
Thomas Paine — Quick Facts
Early Life
- Thomas Paine was born on January 29, 1737, in Thetford, Norfolk, England.
- In 1772, he wrote, Case of the Officers of Excise, which is his earliest known prose composition, and first important pamphlet.
Move to the American Colonies
- Pained moved to Philadelphia in 1774.
- In 1775, he became editor of Pennsylvania Magazine.
- He wrote an anti-slavery essay, African Slavery in America, in 1775.
Common Sense
- In 1776, he wrote the influential pamphlet Common Sense, which advocated independence from Britain.
Continental Army
- Paine enlisted in Continental Army in 1776.
The American Crisis
- Published American Crisis I, the first of 16 American Crisis papers, in 1776. This work contains the famous line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Foreign Affairs Secretary
- Congress appointed Paine its Secretary to Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1777.
- Resigned as Foreign Affairs Secretary in 1779, as a result of the Silas Deane Affair.
Rights of Man and the Age of Reason
- Paine returned to Europe in 1787, dividing his time between England and France.
- He published part one of the Rights of Man, his reply to Edmund Burke’s denunciation of the French Revolution, in 1791.
- In 1792, he published part two of the Rights of Man.
- He was condemned for his radical views, declared an outlaw, and forced to leave England in 1792.
- He moved to France where he became a citizen and was elected as a member of the National Assembly in France, in 1792.
- He helped write the Constitution of the Republic of France in 1792.
- In 1793, he published part one of The Age of Reason.
- He was imprisoned by Jacobins in 1793, during the Reign of Terror, for his moderate views regarding the treatment of Louis XVI.
- He spent 11 months in prison and was released in 1793 with the help of James Monroe, the U.S. Ambassador to France.
- Paine published part two of The Age of Reason in 1795.
Return to America
- Paine returned to New York in 1802.
- He died June 8, 1809, in New York City.
- He was buried on his farm in New Rochelle, New York.
- His remains were lost in an ill-conceived effort to inter him in England in 1819.
Key Publications Written by Thomas Paine
- 1775 — The anti-slavery essay, African Slavery in America.
- 1776 — The pro-independence pamphlet Common Sense
- 1791 — Part one of The Rights of Man.
- 1792 — Part two of The Rights of Man.
- 1793 — Part one of The Age of Reason.
- 1795 — Part two of The Age of Reason.