Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, the influential pamphlet published in 1776 during the American Revolution. Its arguments helped popularize the case for complete independence from Great Britain.
Paine published the pamphlet anonymously in Philadelphia in January 1776. Written in accessible language rather than formal political prose, it attacked hereditary monarchy and argued that the American colonies should establish a separate republic.
Common Sense was not the Declaration of Independence, and Paine did not draft that document. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration’s principal draft. Paine later served the revolutionary cause through additional writings, including The American Crisis, which began with the famous line about difficult times testing people’s spirits.