Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was born on January 29 of 1737 in Thretford, England. His father was a corseter and for him education for his son ment everything, but Paine at age 12 dopped out school. Then he started to apprentice his father's work, but again he failed. At age 19 he left to his first travel oversea. Then in 1768 he became a tax officer in England. In 1772 he publishes his first book called " The Case of the Officers of Exice", that talked about and argument of increasing the salary of the tax officers. In 1774 he met Benjamin Franklin ( founding father ) in London, and Franklin helpped Paine to migrate to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania becoming a journalist.

In 1776 Thomas Paine published a book that changed the entire ideology of the Colonists called " Common Sense" that was like a defense of the American Independence from Britain. He worked, fought with the Continental Army, didnt was a good soldier but in the year 1776-1783 he published another book called "The American Crisis", which even Washington read it to his soldiers personally to inspire them to continue inthe fight and never give up. An interesting fact is that this pamphlet became so popular and was read by so many people that the percentage of the reading was greater than the percentage of people who assist to the Super Bowl. Paine came up until one point that he left the Continental Army and returned to Europe serving as a worker on smokeless candles and iron bridges. In 1791-1792 he wrote " The Rights of Man" as a criticizer of the French Revolution. This caused Paine to be arrested for the charges of anti-monarchist views, but he left to France to join to the National Convention.

In 1793 he was sent to jail being in France because of not supporting the execution of King Louis XVI. While being in prison he wrote what is known as his best work, that is an anti-church book called The Age of Reason in 1794-96. But before of the publishing he was released from prison in late 1794 because of the help of James Monroe, who in that time was the U.S Minister in France. He remained in France until 1802 when Jefferson invited him to come back to America. At the end he died on June 8,1809, but knowing that his contributions to the American Revolution was "eradicated" because of his religious views.