Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (29 January 1737 – 8 June 1809) was an English pamphleteer, revolutionary, inventor, and intellectual. Born in Norfolk, he lived and worked in Britain until he was 37, when he emigrated to the British American colonies during the American Revolution. His main contribution was the powerful, widely-read pamphlet "Common Sense" (1776). It promoted the idea of colonial America's independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. He also wrote "The American Crisis" (1776–1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series.
Thomas Paine went to France after the American Revolution to join the French Revolution. He wrote "The Age of Reason" while in prison there. This pamphlet was critical of organized religion. Paine along with other American founders such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison liked to apply reason to religion instead of revelation. This was part of the greater Age of Enlightenment movement that dated back to about the early 17th century. Paine died at the age of 72, at 59 Grove Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, on the morning of June 8, 1809.