People that Changed the World
“Rights of Man”
Thomas Paine
1737-1809
Origin of Thomas Paine
Born in 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Thomas was raised in a house with Quaker
values and traditions.
Author, innovator, radical, pamphleteer, and journalist were duties Paine held.
From England Paine fled to the British North America with good long time friend
George Washington.
After assisting the American Revolution and creating the separation from Britain, Paine
made sure that he informed the American peoples, and he did that publishing the book
of “common sense”. It brought knowledge and well needed leadership to a nation.
Paine felt his work was done in America and came back to England were he stumbled
across disgust from a fellow Englishmen, Edmond Burke. This is where Paine defended
the French revolution and published the “rights of man”.
After spending time in France he once again moved back to the country that he once
help liberate, the United States of America.
Concept: Rights of Man
When spending time in England Thomas learned that England was planning to go to war with
France in order to gain control of Holland. Thomas Paine published an anonymous book.
Which up-roared the English population, because Thomas thoroughly explained that if
England went to war with France the English government taxes would sky-rocket.
Thomas Paine created a defence mechanism to defend the French revolution. English
Edmund Burke bashed the French and the French ideas. Thomas Paine published a book
titled the “Rights of Man” on March 13th 1791. This right of man book was a disconnect of
European ties. It was essentially a remedy for poverty, government,
literacy issues, unemployment rates. It was his ideas support plans to
increase education and to structure pension plans for the aging population.
The ruling class saw this as a “bloody revolution”, the government banned the use of the
book. This book informed all citizens in England and France that they were the people of
their homeland and that they had the right to decided which way the country was headed. In
a way Paine gave the people hope, knowledge, and courage to stand up for themselves and
their thoughts.
Importance
At a time when France was in a development phase, and where
many things were uncertain, and with a nation on the verge of war, many
things could have failed and crashed but with the book “rights of man”
a nation somehow joined together. The book really informed the average
citizen on his/her boundaries on life in general. He made people
realize that they had worth, and that everyone had the same amount
of rights as each other. Thomas Paine created the pamphlet
“common sense” it made North Americans realized that they deserve their
own land, and that Britain is over seas and should stay overseas.
Paine helped realize that America wasn’t a new Britain but a collage
of all Europe, for as most of Europe had influenced this new land.
The rights of man gave people independence but most
importantly it gave them knowledge and it opened their minds to a
new element of equality that people were not used to. Now today
many countries practise equal rights, and we can thank Thomas Paine
for that great concept!