Thomas Paine arrived in America from England in 1774.
The little booklet of 50 pages was published January 10, 1776 and sold a half-million copies, approximately equal to 75 million copies today..
In 1775, as hostilities between Britain and the colonies intensified, Paine wrote Common Sense to encourage the colonies to break the British exploitative hold and fight for independence.
A friend of Benjamin Franklin, he was a writer of poetry and tracts condemning the slave trade.
Thomas Paine arrived in America from England in 1774