Thomas Paine

During the 1790's until the late 1810's publishers such as Daniel Isaac Eaton and Richard Carlile were imprisoned for merely printing 'Common Sense' and 'The Age of Reason'. He was despised by the British government, leading William Cobbett, who was a monarchist writer at the time, to declare it a shame that Paine 'm...arched out of life with his head on his shoulders'. Paine himself acknowledged that he would be hanged if he set foot back in Britain, leading Percy Bysshe Shelley to take comfort in the fact that despite being virtually found guilty of treason in absentia, and just escaping death by guillotine, that Paine 'died in his own bed.' Read More