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

This item is non returnable