Publishing+of+Common+Sense+by+Thomas+Paine

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=**__How One Pamphlet Helped Influence a Revolution__**= ===Paine was the first to use the phrases: "The American Nation", and "The United States of America." He was their father in spirit and fact. To establish both, or to help make possible their establishment, it was necessary for him to awaken the colonists to a realization of their problem, which was to be free from the mother country, only possible with independence. ===

__**Who**__
[|Thomas Paine] was born in [|Thetford], [|England]; his family was working class and poor. In 1774, with letters of introduction from [|Benjamin Franklin], he immigrated to the [|American colonies]. Two years later, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense; a pamphlet that ignited the revolutionary spirit in the American colonies. His main goal was independence from Great Britain. Later he ended up influencing the French Revolution with another one of his works, [|Rights of Man].

__**What**__
Many of the colonists saw their kings with great honor, believing that [|George III] was their God-given ruler. Paine ridiculed these beliefs. He bluntly called kings "sceptred [|savages],""royal brutes and""Of more worth is one honest man to society...than all the crowned ruffians." Common Sense sold three hundred thousand copies in five months.

"[|Society] in every state is a blessing, but [|government] even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." -Thomas Paine.

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**__Where__**
For his life in America, Paine lived in [|New Rochelle], [|New York] where he also wrote the pamphlet.

__**When**__
Paine first started to write the document in late 1775, and had a work-in-progress title of //Plain Truth//. On January 10th, 1776, it was published [|anonymously] during the [|Revolution].

**__Why__**
At this time, there were the [|Patriots], and [|Loyalists]. Then there were people that remained neutral or couldn't really pick a side to fight for. There needed to be a way to sway the decisions of the neutral to choose the Patriot side, or maybe even change some of the minds of the Loyalists, so Paine came up with an idea. He began writing a pamphlet to do just that, and this pamphlet is the famous document //Common Sense.//


 * __Modern Day Thomas Paines__**:

[|www.tompaine.com]


 * < __**Other links**__ ||<  ||
 * < Complete text of Common Sense ||< http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/commonsense/text.html ||
 * < A collection of quotations to modern music. || http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4JbbW7vozs&feature=related ||
 * < The Second American Revolution. A modern Thomas Paine comments on America today. ||< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKFKGrmsBDk ||
 * < Common Sense: Preface & Introduction || http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2PSi3Otu30&feature=related ||
 * < Bill Moyers: Thomas Paine & the Promise of America. How Thomas Paine impacted modern America. ||< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iyh0d0gXNM&feature=related ||
 * < How Thomas Paine is considered the 'forgotten founding father" ||< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clxvx7CN-ss&feature=related ||

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1. Who made it possible for Thomas Paine's family to immigrate to the American Colonies? 2. What was another one of Paine's works? 3. What was Paine's view of the king and why?**
 * __Questions__