FAQs

Far from it. Paine had several occupations, most notably as an excise officer. However his abilities were used far beyond that position. For example, he was the only Councilman to serve in Lewes, England (an important commerce and redistribution center) for 6 straight years. This required political connections with the Whigs who controlled that area […]

Like most topics in American history, there are two camps of historians. One group, which has emerged since the 1960's, recognizes Paine as the preeminent Founder. As the 200 years of institutional neglect of Paine has lost its hold on scholarship, many historians and authors are correcting the record and bringing Paine to the forefront.

Paine never signed his name "Tom" Paine. He always used Thomas. "Tom" was invented by his detractors, and they were the only ones who used it in the beginning. "Tom" came from the attacks and slanders by his enemies (the churches and the monarchists and some of the Federalists) as a way to demean him

Thomas Paine is the only Founder without a gravesite. The story of his remains reflect the collossal life and works of Paine himself and his legacy. He was first buried in New Rochelle, NY on his farm, after the Quakers refused him, in a town very hostile to him. A Paine admirer, William Cobbett, himself

Paine was a strong advocate for women's equal rights, but he did not promote it publicly. His early writings reflect sympathy for women's social, economic and political rights. He collaborated with Catherine Macaulay in his early writing career in the 1760s, and he associated and worked closely with Mary Wollstonecraft in England in the early

Paine was a staunch abolitionist despite the fact that he seldom wrote on the subject. The biographies on Paine are in error when they attribute "African Slavery in America" and "A Serious Thought" to Paine, and Paine was not a founding member of the first abolitionist organization established in Philadelphia in 1775. However Paine always

Paine played a similar role in the French Revolution to that in the American Revolution. His Common Sense was translated into French and was widely read, which greatly spurred on the forces against monarchy and for democracy. He wrote Rights of Man in defense of the French Revolution against the attacks of England, and he

Paine was the only leading Founder who served in both the military and the government during the Revolution. But more than that, it was Paine's Common Sense that transformed a tax rebellion into a social and political revolution. Paine provided the ideology of the American Revolution: an end to monarchy, establish a system of representative

No. Although many have tried to make that case (including an ex-President of this Association, William van der Weyde), Paine believed the government's role should be for promoting the general happiness and well-being of the people. In Agrarian Justice and Rights of Man he outlined the principles that would become the basis of the welfare