today we're looking at thomas paine and common sense
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the questions down in the description after the opening shots of the american revolution
at lexington and concord in april of 1775 the american colonies were kind of thrown into limbo
uh many americans wanted to remain part of britain those were loyalists while others insisted that
america should declare independence that would be patriots and then there were others that simply
wanted to be left alone and didn't necessarily have an opinion or couldn't really decide what
the american colony should do the continental congress had begun organizing the continental army
to possibly fight the british and the congress had also attempted to keep peace with britain yet no
one really knew what was going to happen next so it was in this environment of uncertainty that
thomas paine published his pamphlet common sense it was called a pamphlet but it had 49 pages so
basically a short book this short writing would ignite the colonies into a fever for independence
but before we get into common sense let's take a look at thomas paine payne was born in england
in 1737. in england payne bounced around from job to job but never stuck with anything for too long
one reason he couldn't keep a job was he really enjoyed arguing politics and questioning those in
authority at one time he was a tax collector and was then fired from that job for writing a 12-page
pamphlet arguing for higher pay for tax collectors and handing it out to members of parliament
in september of 1774 he was introduced to benjamin franklin by a friend franklin was quite intrigued
by payne and his ideas and suggested that he moved to the american colonies so in november of 1774 at
the age of 38 payne sailed to america arriving in philadelphia barely surviving the trip as typhoid
fever had broken out on board and it took pain six weeks to recover once in america once in the
american colonies payne became a magazine editor in philadelphia it was while living there that he
began to see the american culture that was forming and began to understand the american calls for
representation and independence so payne began to work on another pamphlet since he had lived
in england and basically had lived directly under the thumb of the king and parliament and
had lived in the american colonies and saw their struggle he believed that he had experience that
gave him credibility in addressing the political issues of the day the only problem is no one would
publish the pamphlet that he wrote because it was treason i mean the pamphlet clearly questioned
the power of king george but in january of 1776 a printer in philadelphia agreed to print it
it was titled common sense he called the pamphlet common sense because he felt all
the arguments he made in it were just that common sense however payne remained anonymous
as the author for obvious reasons immediately the pamphlet began selling with over 100 000 copies
sold in the first three months it was being read by virtually everyone and everyone started
speculating as to who actually wrote the pamphlet many thought it was samuel adams or even benjamin
franklin common sense made arguments that were different than previous arguments against britain
for years colonists had been upset about not having representation in parliament
remember the whole saying of no taxation without representation well payne instead of focusing all
of the blame on parliament really went after king george and the whole system of monarchies
payne argued that the system of rulers being given power simply because of heredity or being
born into a family was absolutely ridiculous basically he was born many ideas from other
enlightenment scholars but he argued that that people should hold the power not the monarchs
payne even had radical ideas at the time like men who do not own property should be able to vote
adding to the popularity of the pamphlet was the fact that payne wrote it in a very plain language
that all people at the time could understand although today it may be difficult for us to
understand all of payne's wording and writing at the time it was very simple compared to others
that were writing on political topics common sense was the equivalent of really throwing a match into
a bucket of gasoline it literally set the colonies on fire for independence those who had been
uncertain about whether or not the colonies should declare independence were now completely in favor
of declaring independence and and were patriots after reading payne's arguments payne's pamphlet
would go on to sell over 500 000 copies and payne would be a strong supporter of the american
revolution and even wrote another pamphlet called the american crisis in late 1776 trying to inspire
americans to fight in the revolution after the american revolution thomas payne went on to be
a big supporter of the french revolution and wrote more political theories arguing for people having
the power and not monarchs payne definitely deserves recognition for his contributions to
american independence but it's it's interesting to see how later in life he became very disliked he
had always been kind of a troublemaker and he had disputes with george washington and many others
in america and spent many years abroad in other countries but eventually came back to america in
1803. he died in new york city on june 8th of 1809 at the age of 72 and it said that only six people
attended his funeral so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you