Thomas Paine

Born

9 February 1737

Died

8 June 1809

Author of Common Sense and Rights of Man, Thomas Paine received French citizenship in 1792 and was elected to the Convention for the Pas-de-Calais department. Because he spoke little French, his interventions were translated and read by colleagues. He supported trying Louis XVI but opposed execution, proposing detention until peace and then banishment to the United States. Excluded from the Convention as a foreigner in December 1793, he spent eleven months in the Luxembourg prison. He resumed his seat in the Convention after his release in November 1794 and remained a deputy until the Convention dissolved in October 1795 and returned to the United States in 1802.

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