Thomas Paine
(1737–1809)

Though he did not become a journalist until he was in the late thirties, Thomas Paine was the most effective American political writer of the Revolution. Throughout the war, Paine's pamphlets convinced people of the justice of the American cause and helped to inspire faltering American troops.

Born in Thetford, England, Paine left school at 13 and tried his hand unsuccessfully as a teacher, corset maker, sailor, and grocer. After meeting Benjamin Franklin in London, Paine decided to immigrate to the colonies to start a new life. With a letter of introduction from Franklin, Paine came to America in 1774 and began a career in journalism.

In January 1776, less than two years after his arrival in America, Paine published Common Sense, a pamphlet in which he accused the English king of tyranny and argued that Americans had no choice but to fight for their independence. Common Sense, which sold more than 120,000 copies in three months, had a powerful effect on the American public. Less than six months, after the pamphlet's publication, America declared its independence.

After enlisting in the American army in 1776, Paine wrote the first series of 16 essays called The American Crises. Paine joined Washington's troops after they had retreated from the British in New York. Suffering from the cold weather and a shortage of provisions, the soldiers were extremely disheartened. As the troops prepared to leave Valley Forge to fight the British at Trenton, General Washington had the first of Paine's inspirational essays read to the men to raise their spirits.

In 1787, seven years after the end of the Revolution, Paine traveled to Europe and became involved with the French Revolution. Though Paine supported the revolutionary cause in a The Rights of Man (1791–1792), the French revolutionaries imprisoned him for pleading the execution of the overthrown French king. While imprisoned, he began writing The Age of Reason (1784–1785), a sharp attack on organized religion.

When he returned to America in 1802, Paine was treated harshly by the American public for supporting the French Revolution and criticizing religion. Paine died in New York in 1809, an unhappy man, not to be recognized as the American revolutionary hero he was until years after his death.

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