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Thomas Paine's Influence On The American Revolution

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The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a revolt that led to the independence of the colonies from Great Britain and the formation of the United States of America. Many battles were fought for this, but one of the most influential things to incite this revolution was not a battle, but a pamphlet by Thomas Paine.
Thomas Paine was the son of Joseph Paine, a corset maker from Thetford, England (4). He attended grammar school until the age of thirteen until he was forced out of his education to work as an apprentice for his father. He then took up many occupations such as excise tax collector, teacher, grocer, and tobacco seller, but was unsuccessful in all of these (4). He was largely self-educated on the political thought at the time and a strong interest in Newtonian influenced his hatred for the monarchical government in Britain (4). [He developed a powerful …show more content…

Paine came to Philadelphia in 1774. There he became acquainted with advocates of political change and delegates from the Second Continental Congress and worked as a journalist for a period of time. With the encouragement of the delegates, he wrote Common Sense (1).
Published in January 1776, Common Sense was arguably the most influential work to advocate for independence during the American Revolution, (1). Using simple yet forceful and powerful language, Common Sense was accessible to the American people and during the first weeks of its publication, about 150,000 copies were sold (4). At a time when people were thinking about reconciliation with Britain, this pamphlet put the idea of independence in people’s heads (2). In a letter, John Adams reacted to it saying that he liked the part “in favor of independence” but found the other parts such as planning a government to be sprung from ignorance (3). He also took notice of his writing style, saying it “had as much Weight with the People as his Arguments”

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