Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine, one of the bastions of the U.S Independence. Thomas Paine, was born in Thetford, England on January 29, 1737. He came from a poor family, though his father, Joseph, tried to give him education at the Grammar School, but he eventually had to learn trade, but he was unable to accept this new profession. In 1771 he married again. Both marriages were childless and neither brought Paine much in the way of happiness. His first wife had died in 1760, with only one year of marriage. He separated from his second wife in 1774, just before he went to the American colonies.

Paine arrived to Philadelphia where he started his new career as a journalist. He wrote articles for the Pennsylvania magazine about various topics, but on January 10 he published his pamphlet, Common Sense, which rapidly gave him widespread recognition around the colonies. Common Sense presented the colonies the argument for freedom, which had still been undecided. He inspired on enlightenment thinkers and Biblical references for this pamphlet. He attacked British Government and parliament, and asked for immediate independence.

Some of his arguments:

• It was absurd for an island to rule a continent.
• America was not a "British nation"; it was composed of influences and peoples from all of Europe.
• Even if Britain were the "mother country" of America, that made her actions all the more horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally.
• The distance between the two nations made governing the colonies from England unwieldy. If some wrong were to be petitioned to Parliament, it would take a year before the colonies received a response..
• Britain ruled the colonies for its own benefit, and did not consider the best interests of the colonists in governing them.

Later from 1776-1783 he started publishing the series of pamphlets "Crisis", to inspire americans against the British army. These were used by George Washington, which read it aloud to its soldiers.