How Did Thomas Paine Contribute To The American Revolution

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Thomas Paine, a man who is responsible for some of the most influential writing during the colonial period of the seventeen-hundreds. Thomas Paine was born in Britain, in January 1737 and moved to America in the year 1774 shortly before the start of the Revolutionary war on April 19th 1775. Soon after the first major battle in the war Thomas wrote his most famous work, a pamphlet titled “Common Sense”. The purpose of this pamphlet was to persuade anyone who might be undecided on whether or not they wanted to break free from the oppression of the British government. Thomas wanted the American people to fight for more than just freedom from British taxation, he believed that they could gain or independence. Common Sense made an unquestionable argument for independence from England and called the revolution not only achievable, but inevitable. A significant portion of Common Sense is dedicated to attacking the monarchy of England as an institution. Even though Paine constantly criticized many different religions, including Christianity, Paine still uses several scriptures from the Bible to argue that the British monarchy has originated in sin and is ungodly in an effort to appease many of the religious Americans. Other segments of his pamphlet spoke of the British oppression that they were facing and even if they came to an agreement with …show more content…

When talking about the government, Paine says that it is “a necessary evil”, he later states that governments sole purpose lies in “restraining our vices” (Paine p1). He believes that if everyone acted morally and were honest with one another, then there would be no need for a central government. However, Paine knows that not everyone is honest nor perfect in their actions, he also knows that with no government America would surely fall into

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