How many copies did Common Sense really sell, and why did it change minds?

Common Sense changed minds because it said out loud what few colonists dared to say: that the colonies should break away from Britain entirely. It was a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, published anonymously on 10 January 1776. Paine had lived in America for only fourteen months, and he wrote in clear, persuasive prose meant for common people.

It landed in a country that was not ready for the idea. Paine later recalled that people's attachment to Britain had been obstinate, and that it was a kind of treason to speak against it. Others had argued for self-rule inside the empire, but neither John Cartwright in England nor Thomas Jefferson in Virginia had gone as far as Paine. His case was simple: since all men are equal at creation, the distinction between kings and subjects is false, and he quoted the Bible to challenge the divine right of kings.

The sales numbers are famous and uncertain. According to Paine, 120,000 copies sold in the first three months, and one biographer suggests 500,000 in the first year, in both America and Europe. Other historians call such figures implausible, given the size of the literate population at the time, and put the far upper limit at 75,000. Whichever is right, it was read aloud in taverns and passed around as handwritten copies, so far more people heard it than bought it.

Paine himself made nothing from it. He gave up his copyright and never profited from the best-selling pamphlet of its day.