Thomas Paine: A Brief Biography

In 1737, on January twenty-ninth, Thomas Paine was born in England to a quaker father and an Anglican mother (Philip). Paine was said to be baptized into the Anglican church, his mother’s religion (Philip). However, his father’s religion greatly impacted him to become a humanitarian ("Thomas Paine"). A humanitarian is a person who encourages or supports human welfare. This fueled his detestation of governments that promoted hereditary privileges ("Thomas Paine").
Paine received little education and dropped out of school by the age of twelve to work for his father as a stay maker (Philip). Although Paine did not receive a full education he did learn how to read, write and compute mathematics ("Thomas Paine Biography"). Following in his father’s footsteps as a stay maker had failed, just like his many other jobs he held ("Thomas Paine Biography"). Paine worked as an excise
Paine met a man by the name of Robert Aitkin who was a publisher, and bookseller (Philip). They soon became friends and Aitkin offered Paine an editing job at the Pennsylvania Magazine ("Thomas Paine Biography"). As tensions rose between America and Great Britain, Paine published and wrote many articles anonymously or under pseudonyms names, in which he talked about the American revolution and injustice ("Thomas Paine Biography"). During his time living in America, Paine began to support American Independence from Great Britain ("Thomas Paine Biography"). The first military actions of the American Revolutionary war were the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 ("Thomas Paine Biography"). These battles gave Paine the idea that America should not just revolt from Britain but they should demand independence ("Thomas Paine Biography"). This led him to express his propagandist ideas in a fifty page pamphlet called Common Sense ("Thomas Paine