Thomas Paine: Not Who We Think He Is

The American Revolution was not only one of the most significant events in American history, but also ignited the minds of many journalists and writers, such as Thomas Paine. Paine began his career as a journalist in 1776 with the well known pamphlet "Common Sense". By the end of this year, he was enlisted in the American army and had begun to write a series of essays, entitled "The American Crisis". At the time these were written, morale was low in the army, and the soldiers were suffering many hardships. So, George Washington ordered that Paine's essay was to be read in front of the troops to inspire them to keep fighting. He sparked a revolutionary spirit amongst the soldiers by using different methods of persuasion. In this excerpt from "The American Crisis, Number 1", Paine used metaphors to provoke feelings of anger and indignation, imagery to inspire his audience, and logic to blatantly show the contrast between mercy and disdain.

What would influence you to fight for American Independence? Would your family's’ views, your friend’s views, or the views of a political pamphlet influence you? In the beginning of the American Revolution, a man by the name of Thomas Paine wrote a political pamphlet that would influence many Americans to fight for independence from Britain. Thomas Pain used several ideas that include government is a necessary evil, America will eventually be independent, Britain will always oppress the American Colonies to influence the American People, and the importance of allies.

Thomas Paine claims in Common Sense that the people living in America do not need to tolerate the oppression from their British overlords. His main purpose for writing this pamphlet was to expose the injustice of the British towards the Americans and to persuade those who still believed that the British were either needed or were beneficial for the Americans in 1776. Paine values the idea that the Americans need to revolt against their evil ,oppressive, monarchical rulers in Britain and to establish pure democracy in the Thirteen Colonies. Paine writes from the perspective of an equal to his fellow American man, thus making him relatable from common folk to the wealthy merchants and upper classes. Paine shows the British tyranny over America as horrific and he wishes to expose British faults and impurities to inspire the colonists

Thomas Paine was born in Norfolk, England on January 29, 1737 to a middle-income family. His father was a Quaker while his mother was an Anglican, therefore, constant family arguments about religion became part of Thomas life (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2). He did not have much of formal education as he quit schooling at the age of thirteen years and began working for his father. He was baptized in the Anglican Church that his mother attended. His father had forbidden him from learning the Latin language while he was in school though he wanted to learn it. His father specialized in craft staymaking and this was the skill that Thomas learned while working for his father (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2). Thomas had tried running away from home twice, failing in his first escape, but was successful in the second. He escaped to London and then went to Margate where he continued to work as a craft staymaker. He also preached in a church called Methodist persuasion. It was during this time that he married Mary Lambert who died during childbirth (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2). Several incidents had a significant impact on the life of Thomas such as working as an officer in an excise service, teaching in a school in London, as well as being appointed a member of the debating society at the Headstrong Club. Thomas later married Elizabeth Ollive in the year 1771. Thomas died on 8th June 1809 in Greenwich Village in New York City in

First I can start off by telling you who Thomas Paine is, he was born on January 29, 1737 in Thetford, England. He failed himself out of school when he was twelve. He

Thomas Paine was an English-born political philosopher and writer. The Crisis, published in December 1776, is one of his writings. Paine wrote this document for the American people to persuade them to believe that freedom is worth fighting for. Even though the overall passage has a straightforward message, the reader can also understand that not everyone was able to keep fighting.

Thomas Paine was a philosopher of religion, and science, hie wrote the common sense, he wrote a few essays depends on the occurred happen in his life. Paine life was so difficult with his wife 's death, children, and losing his job. He lived in the Great Britain since 1737 was born in Thetford, England. Thomas Paine became extremely important. In 1776, he published the first essay about the Common Sense. The reason why Paine wrote the common sense is to inspire the army and to make his vision become true of being an independent country. Paine was successful as a solid, but he pamphlet become so popular among the solid and inspires them to fight against the British. Paine was the real catalyst for freedom from British colonial rule.

Thomas Paine was responsible for some of the most influential works of the revolution. Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense was a very crucial part to America and its movement of independence from Britain. Paine was effective with his writings by being very plain. He wanted both farmers and officials to understand what he was talking about and be able to comprehend his ideas. Paine wanted to put his ideas out to the people of the American colonies so that they could understand it just by reading and not have to analyze and decipher what he was really trying to get across. He wanted to let the colonist know that there was no more room for talking about a split from English rule but it was time for the colonies to unite and take up arms against their British oppressors.

1. Thomas Paine was nothing but an English craftsman who had emigrated to Philadelphia. He was a minor government official as well. Thomas Jefferson was born in America and like Americans in his time, he believed that Britain had a corrupted constitution. Paine soon finds himself joining the advocates where ideas were being created. From there, Paine was influenced to write the pamphlet called, "Common Sense." Both individuals promoted American Independence and made ideas plain to American colonists. Thomas Paine's advantage was the fact that he wasn't raised under Great Britain's Constitution, that gave him ideas and questions to why is America still under British control considering the fact that there are angry Americans.

It was this variance in heritage that nurtured both Paine’s familial recognition of the common man’s adversity in a monarch’s dominion and his natural predisposition for the written word and self-edification. Liell draws on this point citing Paine’s short lived days at a grammar school near his homeland.(pg.27) Such an opportunity was uncommon for the son of a corset maker and although it would have been more anticipated that he would simply follow his father’s vocation, his parents stressed the significance of pursuing knowledge. Paine further established his kinship and compassion of the common man when he ventured out as a privateer, despite his father’s previous attempts of curtailing such adventures. Not much is known of Paine’s days as a privateer other than it was short lived. It is assumed that he had grown distaste for the lifestyle, perhaps because he simply found it disagreeable or found disdain for the lack of principles for which privateers’ stand. Nonetheless, the experience left Paine with a greater understanding of the soldier class. Not too long after his days as a privateer, Paine finds himself under the employ of the government, a peculiar position for the man who would inspire a revolution against the same government not but a few years later. Furthermore, Paine was an excise man. Not the position a man of the people would be expected to fill. However, Paine,

Paine may not have been the perfect man but he did have great ideas at least for some people in America. In Hogeland sure essay he describes how pains ideas are greatly divided here in the 21st-century. For example pain talks about not getting religion and politics mixed in with each other, as in don’t let your beliefs in God affect the way a country should be ran “Those objecting to religious-right projects like teaching creationism in schools invoke Paine the Deist, exponent of scientific inquiry. Yet WallBuilders, a conservative Christian organization, cites a 1797 speech in which Paine criticized science teachers for overemphasizing reason and ignoring the "Divine Author." (Hogeland, p69) this is the main theme Hogland is trying to get at. People today are very particular about their politics and how they should be run based on ideas of the past for example, the constitution that was written in the 1700s by the founding fathers of America. People today find this document to be life or death if you want to go against it, its is considered un-American or completely against republicanism and democracy. He is saying people change their views based on what is most acceptable to them at

“I've been reading common sense by Thomas Paine, so men say I'm intense or insane. You want a revolution, I want a revelation. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, I'mma compel him to include women in the sequel,” said Angelica Schuyler. Females used to be valued as property, not as people. We saw a chance for change and history was made. Women's Rights is the greatest gift to my generation because women and girls now have an equal opportunity, they risked it all for respect and to be treated the same as men, and our generation can now vote.

Thomas Paine was an English-American political activist, philosopher and writer. He was born on the twenty-ninth of January 1737 at Thetford, Norfolk in England, to a Quaker father and Anglican mother. Paine received basic education, but learned to read, write and perform arithmetic. At the age of thirteen he began working, at first with his father, as a stay maker. He then later worked as an officer of the excise, hunting smugglers, and collecting liquor and tobacco taxes. Around 1760, Paine’s wife and child both died in childbirth, and his business, that of making stay ropes, went under. In the summer of 1772, Paine published “The Case of the Officers of Excise.” A twenty-one paged article in defense of higher pay for excise officers. It was his first political work, and he spent that winter in London, handing out the 4,000 copies of the article to members of Parliament and other citizens. In spring of 1774, Paine was fired from the excise office. He soon met Benjamin Franklin, who advised him to move to America and provided him with letters of prologue to the recently framed country. Paine arrived in Philadelphia on November 30, 1774, taking up his first normal occupation—serving to alter the Pennsylvania Magazine—in January 1775. As of now, Paine started writing decisively, distributed a few articles, secretly or under aliases. One of his initial articles was a blistering judgment of the African slave exchange, called "African Slavery in America," which he marked under

Thomas Paine was born into a middle class family in Thetford, England on January 29, 1737. His father was a Quaker and his mother was an Anglican. He attended school until he was thirteen years old, when he started working for his father, a corset maker. The work was long and tedious work, which Paine did not enjoy. He attempted different types of jobs, but nothing seemed to work. No matter how hard he tried, every career he pursued ended with failure. In fact, even his two marriages ended unsuccessfully. His first wife passed away and he separated from his second wife (Foner 2-3)

Thomas Paine was an English-American philosopher, political theorist, political activist, revolutionary, and one of Americas Founding Fathers. He was born on February 9, 1737 in Thetford, United Kingdom. His early life in England consisted of little education, other than reading, writing, and arithmetic, and numerous jobs such as stay maker, corset makers, and an officer. He never exceeded at any of these tasks. It was 1772 where he published his first political article pertaining to the higher pay excise officers should receive. After this, Paine moved to America where he went on to work for Pennsylvania Magazine and write several essays and pamphlets that influenced many Americans during the American Revolution. Some of his crucial pieces of work consist of African Slavery in America, Rights of a Man, The Age of Reason, and perhaps Paine’s