People that Changed the World “Rights of Man”

1. People that Changed the World“Rights of Man” Thomas Paine 1737-1809

2. Origin of Thomas Paine Born in 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Thomas was raised in a house with Quaker values and traditions. Author, innovator, radical, pamphleteer, and journalist were duties Paine held. From England Paine fled to the British North America with good long time friend George Washington. After assisting the American Revolution and creating the separation from Britain, Paine made sure that he informed the American peoples, and he did that publishing the book of “common sense”. It brought knowledge and well needed leadership to a nation. Paine felt his work was done in America and came back to England were he stumbled across disgust from a fellow Englishmen, Edmond Burke. This is where Paine defended the French revolution and published the “rights of man”. After spending time in France he once again moved back to the country that he once help liberate, the United States of America.

3. Concept: Rights of Man When spending time in England Thomas learned that England was planning to go to war with France in order to gain control of Holland. Thomas Paine published an anonymous book. Which up-roared the English population, because Thomas thoroughly explained that if England went to war with France the English government taxes would sky-rocket. Thomas Paine created a defence mechanism to defend the French revolution. English Edmund Burke bashed the French and the French ideas. Thomas Paine published a book titled the “Rights of Man” on March 13th 1791. This right of man book was a disconnect of European ties. It was essentially a remedy for poverty, government, literacy issues, unemployment rates. It was his ideas support plans to increase education and to structure pension plans for the aging population. The ruling class saw this as a “bloody revolution”, the government banned the use of the book. This book informed all citizens in England and France that they were the people of their homeland and that they had the right to decided which way the country was headed. In a way Paine gave the people hope, knowledge, and courage to stand up for themselves and their thoughts.

4. Importance At a time when France was in a development phase, and where many things were uncertain, and with a nation on the verge of war, many things could have failed and crashed but with the book “rights of man” a nation somehow joined together. The book really informed the average citizen on his/her boundaries on life in general. He made people realize that they had worth, and that everyone had the same amount of rights as each other. Thomas Paine created the pamphlet “common sense” it made North Americans realized that they deserve their own land, and that Britain is over seas and should stay overseas. Paine helped realize that America wasn’t a new Britain but a collage of all Europe, for as most of Europe had influenced this new land. The rights of man gave people independence but most importantly it gave them knowledge and it opened their minds to a new element of equality that people were not used to. Now today many countries practise equal rights, and we can thank Thomas Paine for that great concept!