Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain, February 9, 1737 [O.S. January 29, 1736] – June 8, 1809) was an English-born American Founding Father, French Revolutionary, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. His pamphlets Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783) framed the Patriot argument for independence from Great Britain at the outset of the American Revolution. Paine advanced Enlightenment-era arguments for human rights that shaped revolutionary discourse on both sides of the Atlantic.

Born in Thetford, Norfolk, Paine immigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin, arriving in time to participate in the American Revolution. Virtually every American Patriot read his 47-page pamphlet Common Sense, which catalyzed the call for independence from Great Britain. He followed that breakthrough with the pro-independence American Crisis pamphlet series. Paine returned to Britain in 1787 and wrote Rights of Man (1791) to rebut critics of the French Revolution, particularly the Anglo-Irish conservative writer Edmund Burke. His authorship of the tract led to a trial and conviction in absentia in England in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel.

The British government of William Pitt the Younger was worried by the possibility that the French Revolution might spread to Britain and had begun suppressing works that espoused radical philosophies. Paine's work advocated the right of the people to overthrow their government and was therefore targeted with a writ for his arrest issued in early 1792. Paine fled to France in September, despite not being able to speak French, but he was quickly elected to the French National Convention. The Girondins regarded him as an ally; consequently, the Montagnards regarded him as an enemy, especially Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier, the powerful president of the Committee of General Security. In December 1793, Vadier arrested Paine and took him to Luxembourg Prison in Paris. He completed the first part of The Age of Reason just before he was arrested. Mark Philp notes that "In prison Paine managed to produce (and to convey to Daniel Isaac Eaton, the radical London publisher) a dedication for The Age of Reason and a new edition of the Rights of Man with a new preface." James Monroe used his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794.

Paine became notorious because of his pamphlets and attacks on his former allies, who he felt had betrayed him. In The Age of Reason and other writings, he advocated Deism, promoted reason and freethought, and argued against religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. In 1796, he published a bitter open letter to George Washington, whom he denounced as an incompetent general and a hypocrite. He published the pamphlet Agrarian Justice (1797), discussing the origins of property and introducing the concept of a guaranteed minimum income through a one-time inheritance tax on landowners. In 1802, he returned to the U.S. He died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral, as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity and his attacks on the nation's leaders.

Paine was born on January 29, 1736 (NS February 9, 1737), in Thetford, Norfolk, England, to Joseph Pain (1708–1787), a tenant farmer and stay-maker, and Frances (née Cocke) Pain. Joseph followed the Quaker faith and Frances was an Anglican. Despite claims that he adopted a new spelling after emigrating to America in 1774, he was already using "Paine" in 1769 while living in Lewes, Sussex.

Paine attended Thetford Grammar School from 1744 to 1749, when schooling in England was not compulsory. At age 13 he began an apprenticeship with his father. After completing his apprenticeship he enlisted as a privateer at 19 and served aboard the King of Prussia. He returned to Britain in 1759, became a master staymaker, and opened a shop in Sandwich, Kent.

Paine married Mary Lambert on September 27, 1759, but his business soon collapsed. Mary became pregnant, and after the couple moved to Margate she went into early labour, and both she and their child died.

In July 1761 he returned to Thetford to work as a supernumerary officer. In December 1762 he became an Excise Officer in Grantham, Lincolnshire, and in August 1764 he transferred to Alford with a salary of £50 per annum. On August 27, 1765, he was dismissed for "claiming to have inspected goods he did not inspect". On July 31, 1766, he petitioned the Board of Excise for reinstatement, which it granted the following day when a vacancy arose. While he waited he resumed corsetmaking.