Thomas Paine's Common Sense influenced America's independence from Britain

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Thomas Paine wrote Right of Man in 1791, which was a guide to the Enlightenment ideas. In 1973, his book The Age of Reason, argued against Christian doctrines. Paine has a claim to the title The Father of the American Revolution due to Common Sense, originally titled Plain Truth, which was the pro-independence monograph pamphlet he anonymously published on January 10, 1776. This rapidly spread and it was the best-selling work in eighteenth-century America. It made complicated ideas understandable to common readers, with the use of clear writing in the pamphlet. He argued that the colonies should seek full independence from Britain due to Britain’s unequal power. It was one of the main reasons that caused the colonies’ decision to enter a battle for total independence. Common Sense supposedly convinced many who were unsure of the purpose of the war and played a profound role in influencing the decisions of laymen and lawmakers alike. Thomas Paine died at the age of 72 in Greenwich Village, New York City on June 8, 1809. He was buried in New Rochelle, New York because he had resided there since 1802 when he came back to America. Even though we know where he was initially buried, we do not know his resting place today due to the fact of his remains were removed from the ground by an admirer looking to return them to England. “Common sense is a genius dressed in its working clothes,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet (Thomas Paine, Common Sense).
Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk, on January 29, 1737. He was the son of a Quaker stay maker and he spent many years off land after he tried some occupations, such as being a shopkeeper, on the land. He only went to school to the age of thirteen because he began to work for...

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...ped bring equal rights to America. We had no longer been a nation controlled by others, but our own, independent nation free to govern and rule the land as we please. This still applies today, as The U.S. is the second most independent country in the world. Thomas Paine helped shape our future which has now fortunately become our present.

Works Cited

"Thomas Paine, Common Sense" StudyMode.com. 11 2008. 2008. 11 2008 .).

"Discussion Of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”". Anti Essays. 11 Jan. 2014

Ricketson, William F., and Jerome D. Wilson. Thomas Paine. Boston: G.K. Hall and Company, 1989.

Hogan, J. Michael. "Republican Charisma and the American Revolution: The textual person of Thomas Paine's Common Sense." The Quarterly Journal of Speech 86, 1 (Feb 2000). Journal of Speech 86, 1 (Feb 2000)

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