Paine’s deep relationship with the Bonnevilles lasted for more than 15 years. This essay studies Paine’s time with the Bonnevilles in Paris during the six years he lived with them, from 1797 to 1802, as Napoleon Bonaparte began his ascent to power and U.S.-France relationships floundered.
The Bonnevilles: Thomas Paine’s “Family” Part One: Read Post »
Elihu Palmer (1764 1806) was a little-known freethinker who, even after losing his vision, remained active in the intellectual debates of his time. Palmer emerged as one of the leading exponents of deism in the First American Republic. Drawing upon thinkers such as Locke, Hume, Rousseau, and Jefferson.
Elihu Palmer: A Forgotten Voice of Deism Read Post »
Since Paine believed that all organized religion was a tool to monopolize power and profit and to oppress the people, his belief in the separation of church and state was vehement. Witnessing first hand England's use of the church to wield the king's power, he learned early on to keep religion out of government and
What is Paine‘s position on the separation of church and state? Read Post »
![“Reason against unreason” a 1882 illustration by Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann shows the “Light of Reason”, containing bust portraits of “Johannes Kepler, I. Kant, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, B. de Spinoza, Franklin, Voltaire, E.H. Haeckel, Tyndall, Huxley, [and] Darwin”, beaming against a large umbrella labeled “Bigotry, Supernaturalism, [and] Fanaticism” – Library of Congress](https://thomaspaine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Reason-against-unreason.jpg)
In a February 15 talk at the Paine Memorial Building in New Rochelle, Dr. Carvalho said, “By criticizing the adulterous connection between church and state… Paine had devastating effects on the governments using religion to maintain hierarchies and oppression.”
Brazilian Scholar Discusses Age of Reason and Democracy Read Post »
In Paine’s view, organized religions marketed unreliable hearsay piled on hearsay as “revelations” that are, by definition, based on faith rather than evidence. Carefully observing nature, he rejected nearly everything propounded by organized religions as antithetical to rational analysis, retaining from Biblical accounts only what was discernable through observation.
The Mysteries of Paine’s Beliefs in Providence Read Post »
Frances Wright has been called the “female Thomas Paine.” In important ways, she was. Fanny Wright was the first American feminist, a radical abolitionist, labor champion, powerful public orator, and one of the first philosophers making a public case for freethought.
Frances (Fanny) Wright: ‘The Female Thomas Paine’ Read Post »
Gilbert Vale was an early supporter of Thomas Paine, first in England, then in America in the early 19th century. He was a freethought publisher and writer, and through his work he reached the freethought and progressive segments of the American people.
Gilbert Vale, Thomas Paine’s Good Friend Read Post »
How dared Thomas Paine, a man whose formal education had ended at thirteen, who had failed as a skilled craftsman, as a teacher, as a shopkeeper, as a street preacher, as a petty customs official in the Excise, dismissed and a debtor and bankrupt, even dare to think about government?
Paine offended powerful figures that might have been his patrons. He blamed ex-President Washington for failing to rescue him from prison; and he published a series of letters strongly attacking the Federalist party for failing to hold to the democratic principles of the American Revolution.
An Appreciation and Summary of Thomas Paine’s Classic Age of Reason Read Post »
That century with its agricultural and industrial revolutions, the Wesley and English Methodism, the sciences, the challenge of slavery, the French and American revolutions, Thomas Paine and other enlightened thinkers, but then the loss of the colonies – was not an easy stage on which a woman might make her case.
BOOK REVIEW: Gender, Religion And Radicalism In The Long Eighteenth Century Read Post »
Those of a radical persuasion are unlikely to have missed the reference in Richard Dawkins’ new book The God Delusion. Dawkins points to the epithets hurled at ‘poor Tom Paine: Judas, reptile, hog, mad dog, souse, louse, archbeast, brute, liar and of course infidel’.
The New Age Of Reason Read Post »
How much Paine ever learned about his daughter and his estranged wife we will probably never know. Sarah would appear to have conceived about six months after the marriage, and Paine was back in Thetford to commence studying for the Excise about the time his daughter died.
Thomas Paine: Observations On Methodism And His Marriage To Mary Lambert Read Post »
