Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737. His father was a Quaker, and his mother was Anglican. He didn’t receive much in the way of formal education, but he did learn reading, writing, and math. He bounced around from job to job, finding little success in any of them. He was nearly 40 years old when he met Benjamin Franklin, who encouraged him to move to America and provided him with letters of introduction.

Paine landed in Philadelphia on November 30, 1774. He was employed by the Pennsylvania Magazine, where he helped edit. He began writing and publishing many articles, usually anonymously or under pseudonyms. He had strong opinions about revolution and injustice. He wrote a strong condemnation of slavery in his article “African Slavery in America,” writing under the name “Justice and Humanity.”

In April of 1775, Paine stated that America should not just revolt against taxation, but it should demand complete independence from Great Britain. His idea became a 50-page pamphlet called “Common Sense” on January 10, 1776.

“Common Sense” delivered a strong argument for complete independence from British rule. Most of the colonists were still undecided on the issue, and the pamphlet forced them to consider the issue and discuss it. Its distribution caused growing enthusiasm for independence. The pamphlet was written using biblical references to speak to the common man, sort of like a sermon, rather than in an intellectual or philosophical style. Within a few months, it had sold over 500,000 copies and paved the way for the Declaration of Independence to be ratified that summer.

In addition to “Common Sense,” Thomas Paine also wrote 16 “Crisis” papers between 1776 and 1783. The first was published in December 1776. George Washington ordered that the pamphlet be read to all of his troops at Valley Forge, hoping it would reignite them and spur them to victory.

Paine held several government positions, including secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs and clerk of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. Learning of the low morale among American troops due to low or no pay and meager supplies, Paine started a drive to raise supplies for the troops. He wrote “Public Good” in 1780, pointing out the importance of a strong central government and the benefit of states pooling resources for the good of the nation.

In 1787, Paine returned to England. His writing turned to things like Rights of Man, which attacked the European aristocratic society and got him indicted for treason. He was sent to prison in late 1793, where he was nearly executed. While in prison, he wrote The Age of Reason, which criticized institutionalized religion.

Paine returned to the United States in the early 1800s, but his seemingly reckless behavior while in Europe had superseded his previous revolutionary work. When he died in 1809, only six people attended his funeral, half of them former enslaved people. His obituary read that “He had lived long, did some good and much harm.” However, when the Times of London referred to him as the “English Voltaire” in 1937, the opinion of Thomas Paine that had held for over a century changed, and he has since been viewed as a formative part of the American Revolution.