Paine was born in 1737 in Thetford, England. His father, a stay maker, was a Quaker, while his mother was Anglican. When he was thirteen, he started working with his father making stays, the thick ropes used on ships at that time. Later, he worked as an officer, collecting taxes and hunting down smugglers. In 1774, Paine moved to the Americas. With encouragement and letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin, he settled in Pennsylvania.
In January of 1776, Paine published his most well-known literary work, Common Sense. In it, he encouraged the American revolution