Common Sense and the Birth of Independence: How Thomas Paine’s Words Ignited Acton – and America

This lecture by longtime Acton resident Greg Jarboe commemorates the 250th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. This pamphlet transformed colonial resistance into a movement for American independence. Drawing on history, Acton’s own revolutionary legacy, and his articles for The Acton Exchange, Jarboe explains how Paine’s plainspoken arguments against monarchy and for popular sovereignty reshaped public opinion and helped make independence inevitable.

The talk traces Paine’s unlikely path, the pamphlet’s explosive spread through New England, its influence on Acton Town Meeting’s vote for independence on June 14, 1776, and its direct impact on the Declaration of Independence. Jarboe also explores tensions between Paine’s democratic vision and John Adams’s preference for checks and balances, concluding with the enduring relevance of Paine’s ideas to American democracy today.