1-157-576 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Thomas Paine, English-born American revolutionary, writer and philosopher, c1790. Paine (1737-1809) emigrated to America in 1774, and two years later published an influential 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense which advocated American independence. After the American Revolution Paine returned to England, where he became a supporter of the French Revolution, which he defended in his The Rights of Man, published in 1791-1792. The book was banned in England and Paine was forced into exile in France. He was elected to the National Convention, but was imprisoned in by Robespierre in 1793 when he criticised his policy of the Reign of Terror. Paine returned to the United States again in 1802, but the unpopularity of the views on religion expressed in his The Age of Reason, written in 1794-1796, led to him being widely ostracised by American society. From Original Portraits by John Kay. (Edinburgh, c1790).