Birth:
January 29, 1737, Norfolk, England
Death:
June 8, 1809, New York
Early Influences:
- Father was a Quaker
- Family was poor
- Disliked corset making and left home to go to sea
- Failed as a shopkeeper
Education:
- Spent a short time in Grammar School
- Apprenticed as a corset maker to his father
Major Accomplishments:
- Wrote the pamphlet Common Sense in 1776
- Wrote a series of pamphlets entitled The Crisis during the American Revolution
- Wrote Rights of Man from 1791-2
- Elected to the French National Convention in 1792
- Wrote The Age of Reason from 1794-5
Significance:
- Common Sense was highly influential on the leaders of the Independence movement
- His most influential work, Rights of Man argued against hereditary monarchy and for social equality
Contemporaries:
