Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense helped build support for American independence in 1776.
Published anonymously in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, the pamphlet attacked monarchy and hereditary rule while arguing that the American colonies should separate from Great Britain. Paine wrote in direct, accessible prose rather than the formal style common in political essays, helping the argument reach a broad colonial readership.
Common Sense was issued shortly before Congress debated Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence. Its popularity did not by itself decide the vote, but it helped make independence a more widely discussed and defensible political position. Paine later donated much of the money he received from the pamphlet to the revolutionary cause.
The title is sometimes confused with Paine’s later work The Rights of Man, which defended the French Revolution. Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack was also a famous colonial publication, but it was not Paine’s independence pamphlet.