Thomas Paine

Here is an article I sent out in 2020.  Thomas was born and educated in Thetford.  In 1774 he emigrated to the American colonies on the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin.  In 1776 he became one of the founding fathers of the American War of Independence when he wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense which played a major role in influencing the American colonies to continue their fight for independence against the British.   He then travelled to France in 1787 as a supporter of the French Revolution and in 1791 published the Rights of Man.  Paine spoke out effectively in favour of republicanism as against monarchy and went on to outline a plan for popular education, relief of the poor, pensions for aged people, and public works for the unemployed, all to be financed by the levying of a progressive income tax. As a member of the National Convention he campaigned unsuccessfully to save the life of King Louis XVI, favouring banishment rather than execution and was imprisoned when Robespierre came to power.  He was released in 1794 and returned to the United States in 1802. An exponent of Deism, he called Christianity “a fable.” and denied “that the Almighty ever did communicate anything to man, by…speech,…language, or…vision.” .  He died in 1809.

Below is a link to an Encyclopaedia Britannica article on Thomas Paine, just left click on the link to access the article:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Paine  

Below is a link to a You Tube clip on the story of Thomas Paine:

With these links just left click on the link and the film should fire up, you can pause/play the film similar to pause/play on your TV.  You may have to drag the red bar on the video to play from the start.  You also should be able to select skip to bypass the adverts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJbGgZowCcA