Biography of Thomas Paine / Биография Томаса Пейна


Thomas Paine was born in England in 1737. His father, a Quaker, was a corset-maker and small farmer. His mother was the daughter of an attorney and attended the Anglican Church. As a boy, Tom attended school until he was 13. When he left school he became an apprentice to his father and worked making corsets out of whalebone. After a few years he went to work for one of the best-known corset makers in London.

Tom married the daughter of a member of the Custom and Excise service. His father-in-law convinced Tom to give up his job as corset maker and take an exam to be an excise tax collector. Less than a year after his wedding his wife died and he returned to his hometown where he became a tax collector. He soon lost his job and again went to work as a corset maker. After a short time he returned to London and began working as an English teacher. He was hardly able to live on his salary as a teacher and went back to work as a tax collector. This lasted for only a short time as he was fired from his job after he joined a movement to get higher pay for tax collectors.

Discouraged with his life, Tom decided to leave for America. While in London he became acquainted with Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Franklin took a liking to the young man and convinced him to go to Philadelphia. He gave Tom a letter to give to one of Franklin’s printer friends recommending him for a job when he arrived.

Tom arrived in Philadelphia in November 1774. The First Continental Congress had just ended its meeting in Philadelphia a month before he arrived. The Congress declared that the measures the British had taken after the Boston Tea Party were unconstitutional and called upon the colonies to form their own militias and prepare to defend themselves. The Congress also said it would meet again if Britain did not change its policy. Although born and raised in England, Tom was opposed to British acts that punished the New England colonists for destroying tea.

Just a few months after he began work as a printer in Philadelphia, the British and American Patriots fought at Lexington and Concord. Tom fully supported the Patriot cause and became convinced that it was time for the American colonies to declare independence from the British. He did not think it was right to be forced to pay taxes to a government across the ocean. He also thought that the colonies should not be forced to obey laws that were made by the British Parliament.

Tom Paine had only been in America for just over two years when he wrote and published a pamphlet called “Common Sense.” Before publishing the pamphlet he showed it to several men in Philadelphia who had been trying to convince the colonial assembly to call for independence. Ben Franklin, who had just returned from England, was one of the few men who read the pamphlet before it was printed. Franklin liked what he read and suggested only a few minor changes. The pamphlet was published anonymously in January 1776. It was a success and so many copies were sold that the publisher had to print more copies. Many people who read the pamphlet said that the author must be Benjamin Franklin. Others disagreed and said it was either Sam or John Adams who was the author. It was not until later that people learned that an Englishman who had just come to Philadelphia wrote this popular pamphlet.

Paine wrote that it was foolish to think that a small continent across the ocean should rule Americans. He began the pamphlet by saying that the King and Parliament had for years oppressed the “good people of this country.” He wrote, “The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.” Paine believed that America would become a model for other countries. Some years later Paine said that he wrote “Common Sense” to “rescue man from tyranny and … false principles of government, and to enable him to be free.”

Within a few months of the publication of “Common Sense” the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and on July 4, 1776 declared, “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States…”

Tom Paine did more than write about the need for independence, he joined the Revolutionary army. During the war he wrote The American Crisis. These were a series of letters written during the war. The first Crisis paper written in December 1776 was a call to patriotism. Generals ordered that the paper be read to all troops in military camps.

After the Revolutionary War ended, Tom Paine lived in New York and New Jersey for a time. In 1787 he traveled to England and later to France. He was in France at the time of the French Revolution. Paine wrote a pamphlet “The Rights of Man” supporting the French Revolution. The British government considered the pamphlet to be treason and, even though Paine was in France, found him guilty and declared that he was an outlaw. He would be arrested and jailed if he ever returned to England.

Paine became a member of the French National Assembly during the French Revolution. When the political party he joined was outlawed, Paine was arrested and jailed. In 1794, the U.S. representative in France, James Monroe, arranged for Paine’s release from jail. He returned to the United States and lived the last years of his life in poverty. Ten years after his death, an Englishman returned Paine’s remains to England as his way of protesting the actions of the British government. The man who has been called the most responsible for America’s independence was finally laid to rest in England. The return of his remains was looked upon as a final act challenging British policy.