Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, the 1776 pamphlet that urged American independence.
Paine published the pamphlet anonymously in Philadelphia in January 1776. Written in direct, accessible language, it challenged monarchy and hereditary rule while arguing that the American colonies should separate from Great Britain.
Common Sense became one of the most influential political publications of the Revolutionary era. It sold widely for its time and helped make independence an ordinary subject of public debate rather than a position limited to political leaders.
Paine later wrote The American Crisis papers, which supported the revolutionary cause during the war. Common Sense did not itself declare independence; the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence several months later, on July 4, 1776. The pamphlet is remembered as an important part of the intellectual background to that decision.