Paine, Thomas (1737–1809)

English left-wing political writer. He was active in the American and French revolutions. His pamphlet Common Sense (1776) ignited passions in the American Revolution; others include The Rights of Man (1791) and The Age of Reason (1793). He advocated republicanism, deism, the abolition of slavery, and the emancipation of women.

Paine, born in Thetford, Norfolk, was a friend of US scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin and went to America in 1774, where he published several republican pamphlets and fought for the colonists in the revolution. In 1787 he returned to Britain. The Rights of Man is an answer to the conservative theorist Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. In 1792, Paine was indicted for treason and escaped to France, to represent Calais in the National Convention. Narrowly escaping the guillotine, he regained his seat after the fall of Robespierre. Paine returned to the USA in 1802 and died in New York.