THOMAS PAINE ARRESTED

 


Thomas Paine in Luxembourg jail, sitting in a dimly lit cell. His face was illuminated by light streaming through a barred window, with scattered papers around him, representing his continued intellectual resistance. Paine, an English American revolutionary author, who influenced many like Jyotirao Phule, was arrested for treason on 28th December 1793. 

Thomas Paine was arrested in France on 28.12.1793, charged with treason during the Reign of Terror. Paine, an English-born American revolutionary author of Common Sense, moved to France to support the French Revolution. He was elected to the National Convention. His opposition to the execution (instead of exile) of King Louis XVI and association with the moderate Girondin faction turned radicals like the Montagnards against him. He was tried in absentia on 26.12.1793, by a revolutionary tribunal, then arrested two days later at his Paris home by order of the Committee of General Security's president, Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier. Authorities viewed him as an Englishman from a nation at war with France, despite his American citizenship. Paine was held in Luxembourg Prison under harsh conditions, fearing the guillotine. He wrote part of The Age of Reason there. He was released in November 1794 after US diplomat James Monroe intervened.



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