Thomas Paine (29 January 1737 – 8 June 1809) was an English pamphleteer, revolutionary, inventor, and intellectual. Born in Norfolk, he lived and worked in Britain until he was 37, when he emigrated to the British American colonies during the American Revolution. His main contribution was the powerful, widely-read pamphlet "Common Sense" (1776). It promoted the idea of colonial America's independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. He also wrote "The American Crisis" (1776–1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series.