Thomas Paine

13 Pages 3131 Words

ish teacher for a while. Then in 1768, he was reinstated into the customs business, serving in Lewes, where he was taken in by a man named Samuel Olive. Olive sold tobacco for a living, but more importantly was involved in local government. Living with Olive provided an outlet for Tom to become involved with politics for the first time. Being involved with politics really shaped Tom’s personality. He joined a social club where he often spoke with a witty, satirical style. After the death of Samuel Olive in 1769, Tom took Samuel’s place as a tobacco grocer and married Olive’s daughter Elizabeth.
In 1772, Paine published his first political writing, The Case of the Officers of Excise. It was a pamphlet speaking on behalf of him and his fellow customs officers. His complaint was that customs officers were greatly underpaid, and therefore had less motivation to work hard and had more inclination to accept bribes. While he was not the only one funding this pamphlet, with the cost of publishing, he lost money on it. Here one can see how passionate Tom was about getting his ideas across, since he was willing to lose a substantial amount of money, which he had little of. The pamphlet very likely cost Paine his job though there is no official record saying so. Nevertheless, Paine was fired and went bankrupt. Shortly afterwards, he and his wife separated. Here he was at the age of thirty-six, broke, and alone, with no idea he would be one of the most influential minds in American history.
In 1774, Paine returned to London where he was introduced to another one of the greatest minds in American history, Benjamin Franklin. They met through a mutual acquaintance, George Lewis Scott. Anyways, Franklin quickly persuaded Paine to go to America. Franklin spoke with his son-in-law, Richard Bache, and set Paine up with a job as a tutor. Within three months of returning to London, Paine was on a ship headed for America. W...