By Ken Bridges, Texas History Minute
Thomas Paine brought the American Revolution from debating halls to the conscience of everyday Americans through thunderous writing and a fearless sense of right and wrong. He was immigrant who quickly adopted America as his home and the colonial cause as his own. His essays an pamphlets solidified the idea for independence among the general public, inspiring the colonists to fight for their freedom.
Thomas Paine was born in England in February 1737. His father made a modest living as a corsetmaker. He attended school for a few years in a time when very few attended at all. He learned his father’s trade as a corsetmaker. However, he was not content to keep up the family business and served on a cargo ship for a few years.
In 1759, he returned to England, married, and opened his own corset shop. He quickly ran into money troubles and the shop closed, forcing him and his pregnant wife to move. Tragedy poured on him. His wife died in childbirth in 1760, along with his newborn daughter. Paine drifted from one job to another for a time, eventually finding work as a customs agent. He clashed with his bosses often, costing him his job at one point. In 1768, he worked briefly as a teacher before regaining his customs job.
After going form one town to another, he eventually ended up in Sussex where he became involved in local politics and began writing pamphlets, often anonymously. In 1771, he remarried and began running a grocery and tobacco shop while he continued to write. He wrote The Journeyman’s Touch-stone, defending the right of jurors and The Case of the Officers of Excise, calling for better pay for customs officials.
His life took a dramatic turn in 1774. The British government fired him from his customs job, and he second marriage ended. His tobacco business failed, and he was facing bankruptcy. He sold everything he had and moved to London, hoping for a fresh start. Not long after arriving in London, a friend introduced him to Benjamin Franklin, who was at that point acting as a lobbyist to Parliament on behalf of the colonies. The two quickly struck up a friendship over their mutual political interests and writings. Franklin knew that Paine’s passion and criticisms of the British government would find a receptive audience in the colonies and encouraged him to move to America.
After arriving in Philadelphia, he soon began editing Pennsylvania Magazine where his talents as a writer continued to grow. He quickly began writing editorials criticizing British policies toward the colonies and condemning slavery.
By January 1776, the American Revolution had been underway for several months, and the colonists continued debating independence. At this point, Paine wrote a blistering 47-page essay titled Common Sense. More than 150,000 copies were printed and sold throughout all thirteen colonies among a population of three million. His mix of biting humor and sharp arguments tore apart all the remaining arguments for remaining a part of England. Paine argued that all kings were thieves who had stolen their countries. He insisted that the mother country of the colonies as Europe and not England and argued that the colonial agricultural economy would sustain the new nation “as long as eating is the habit of Europe.”
In the fall of 1776, he began writing a series of essays and pamphlets titled The Crisis. He wrote several throughout the darkest days of the war, attempting to rally a frustrated public and weary soldiers. He began most with the now-famous line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” From there, he launched in vicious attacks on the British, the king, and British generals by name, using his characteristic biting sense of humor to lift the spirits of the public, calling on the people not to simply be “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots” but to rally to the nation’s cause. He would continue to write these throughout the war.
In April 1777, the Continental Congress appointed him as secretary for the Committee on Foreign Affairs, making him responsible for reporting meetings and keeping up with correspondence as America sought allies overseas. Two years later, the Pennsylvania General Assembly hired him as chief clerk. As his job required him to print government records, it provided a steady income for him over the next year.
In 1787, he returned to England. When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, he openly supported it. In 1791, he wrote a new tract, Rights of Man, which defended the new revolution and the attempts to overthrow the king, calling for monarchies to be abolished and for rights for all the people. His book was received enthusiastically in France and America. The British government indicted him for his statements, and he fled to France.
Because of his fame as a writer during the American Revolution, the revolutionary government of France named Paine an honorary French citizen, an honor also conferred on George Washington and Ben Franklin. France was in the chaos of its own revolution in the 1790s, and in 1792, the new National Convention government appointed him to represent the port city of Calais in the government even though Paine had only a limited knowledge of the French language. The French Revolution grew increasingly chaotic and violent. Accusations, rumors, and conspiracies flew. In the chaos, Paine was caught in the middle. In 1793, he was arrested as a new faction cemented power. He was released shortly afterward as yet another faction took over.
While in prison, he began writing Age of Reason, perhaps his most controversial work. The book, published in 1794, attacked organized religion, which greatly offended many in the Americas and France. Paine was increasingly becoming an atheist. Eventually, he was released from prison, and he continued writing. In 1796, he wrote an essay sharply condemning George Washington, which further upset many Americans.
In 1802, he returned to America. He found that he was now very unpopular and had trouble finding work. He died at age 72 in June 1809. By this point, he had been largely forgotten about. The man who electrified revolutions on both sides of the Atlantic had a funeral attended by only six people.