Common Sense

Common Sense was a pamphlet first published on January 10, 1776 during the American Revolutionary War by Thomas Paine. Its pages contained a denouncement of British rule.

Arguments against British rule in Common Sense:

• It is ridiculous for an island to rule a continent
• America is not a "British nation"; it is composed of influences from all of Europe
  • Even if Britain is the "mother country" of America, that makes her actions all the more horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally
• Being a part of Britain will drag America into unessecary European wars, and keep us from the international commerce at which we excel

The publication of this pamphlet was key in the growth of popular support for independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson took ideas from both this publication and John Locke when writing the Declaration of Independence