Episode Details

In January 1776, the American war was 9 months old and nobody would say the word. The colonists were fighting, dying, and still hoping to be loyal British subjects again — independence was very nearly treason, and the King was still beloved. Then a 46-page pamphlet by a penniless immigrant who signed himself only “an Englishman” said the unsayable, in plain tavern language anyone could read aloud.

This is the story of Thomas Paine — a failed corset-maker and twice-fired tax man, 14 months off the boat — and the pamphlet that changed the mind of a continent in a single winter. Common Sense called the King a “Royal Brute,” mocked monarchy itself as “the popery of government,” and told a frightened people that “we have it in our power to begin the world over again.” It sold more than 100,000 copies, was read aloud from New Hampshire to Georgia, and turned independence from a dirty word into plain common sense. Even John Adams, who dreaded its effect, admitted what it had done. The Declaration was possible in July because Paine had done his work in January.