ANNIVERSARIES
10 JANUARY 1776
Common Sense fires up America
Thomas Paine’s revolutionary tract urges colonists to cut ties with Britain
In the autumn of 1774, the radical pamphlet- eer Thomas Paine arrived in the New World. The American colonies were in open revolt; already the first shots had been fired in what would become the War of Independence. But to his disappointment, Paine found that many Americans were not yet ready to contemplate the ultimate breach. “Their attachment to Britain was obstinate,” he recalled, “and it was, at that time, a kind of treason to speak against it. Their ideas of grievance operated without resentment, and their single object was reconciliation.” This, Paine decided, was where he must come in.
By the end of 1775 Paine had finished work on a tract entitled , which was published 10 days into the
