Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was born in 1737 into a poor Quaker family in Norfolk, England, left school at thirteen to learn his father's trade of stay-making, and was by turns a sailor, teacher, tobacconist and exciseman, failing again and again and twice dismissed. At thirty-seven he met Franklin in London and, with a letter of recommendation from him, emigrated to America. Fourteen months later he published the pamphlet Common Sense, which set America ablaze for independence. In the War of Independence he marched with the army and wrote, 'These are the times that try men's souls.' Later he went to France, joined the Revolution and was elected to the National Convention, but for opposing the execution of the king he was imprisoned and narrowly escaped the guillotine. In old age he returned to America, where his criticism of Christianity in The Age of Reason made him an outcast; only six people attended his funeral.