Thomas Paine - Quick facts

 

 

 

He was an author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Born in Thetford, England, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution.

Paine greatly influenced the French Revolution. Despite not speaking French, he was elected to the French National Convention in 1792.

Paine remained in France during the early Napoleonic era, but condemned Napoleon's dictatorship, calling him "the completest charlatan that ever existed".

He wrote the book "The Age of Reason" which presented the case that the Bible was just literature and not the word of God. He was not an atheist though, he was a Deist, believing in God's revelation through nature.

In 1802, at President Jefferson's invitation, he returned to America where he died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his criticisms and ridicule of Christianity.

Thomas Paine - Works

Common Sense (1776)

The Crisis (1776-1777)