In this episode of Creating America: The Documents and Speeches That Shaped the United States, host and narrator Will Sarris presents a dramatic reading of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense—the most influential political pamphlet of the American Revolution.

Written in January 1776, Common Sense made the bold, radical case for full independence from Great Britain at a time when many American colonists still hoped for reconciliation with the Crown. Paine’s plain language and powerful arguments against monarchy, hereditary succession, and the English constitution helped transform public opinion and paved the way for the Declaration of Independence.

In Part 1, we explore Paine’s opening sections on:

• The origin and purpose of government
• The difference between society and government
• Why monarchy is inherently flawed
• The dangers of hereditary rule
• Early arguments for republican government and liberty

Because Common Sense was meant to be heard rather than read, this podcast presents the text as it would have been experienced in taverns, meeting halls, and public gatherings throughout colonial America—brought to life through professional voice performance.

This episode includes historical context but allows the primary source to speak for itself, inviting listeners to engage directly with the ideas that shaped the founding of the United States.

🎧 Next episode: We continue with the next section of Common Sense, “The Present State of American Affairs.”

About the Podcast
Creating America is a narrated American history podcast dedicated to reading and preserving the documents and speeches that shaped the United States, from famous texts to nearly forgotten works.

Host: Will Sarris
📩 Contact: CreatingAmericaPod@gmail.com
💬 Support the show: patreon.com/williamsarris
🌐 More about Will: williamsarris.net

Welcome to the Creating America Podcast, the documents and speeches that shaped the United States

I’m Will Sarris. I’m an actor and media professional and I’ve always loved the study of history. I was thinking about the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the United States recently, and I realized that often I know ABOUT various speeches and documents that shaped the history of the US, but I’ve often never actually read them. And I thought that likely many of you were in the same place.

In addition, many of these texts were meant to be heard more than read (especially in the case of speeches), since many people were illiterate. And I’m a voice actor, so I hope I can not only bring you the text of the document or speech, but make it come alive.

So what I want to do is simply read to you these speeches and documents. Many of them are well known, others only known by name, and others almost entirely forgotten in the public consciousness. Some are inspirational, others will probably shock you.

A few quick things before we get going. I’m interested in and have studied history over my lifetime, but I am not a historian. So while I will provide some context for each speech or document, I will offer little commentary other than to point you to respected historians who can give some insight every once in a while.

Many of these documents and speeches were written by white men, but I want to try to bring in other diverse voices as we go. The country has always benefited from a diversity of opinions, and that should be reflected here.

So, I’ve tried to somewhat organize this chronologically, however I’m sure I will miss things that many of you think are relevant or that I simply don’t know exist. That’s ok! Contact me and I’ll try to bring in those texts as well as we go . The email address is CreatingAmericaPod@gmail.com.

It is my hope that as you listen to these documents and speeches you will gain an appreciation of what our country was, what it is, and what it hopes to be.

One of the most well known phrases to come from the pre-revolutionary war period of American history is “Give me Liberty or Give me Death!” and I bet most of you know that it was uttered by Patrick Henry.
What you may not know is exactly WHO Patrick Henry was and WHY he said that phrase, or indeed what the context was in which he said it.

Also...

In the Continental Congress, as the weeks turned into months and the situation in Boston and indeed the rest of the colonies grew more untenable, the delegates began to warm to the idea of independence, an idea that Patrick Henry, Samuel and John Adams of Massachusetts and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, and a few others, had already realized was the inevitable path forward by this point.

If you'd like to support this podcast, head to Patreon.com/williamsarris

You can find us on social media by searching Creating America Podcast.
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