How Did The Idea Of Freedom Change Over Time

Freedom has not only changed since the 18th century, but has come to define the United States to make it the great country it is today. The idea of freedom can be debated and talked about because there are many viewpoints on what it exactly is. Of course, freedom has changed throughout the Coase of history and means different things to different people. During the Colonial period to the civil war in the United States, many people worked to expand new ideas of what freedom is, and if it wasn’t for these people the United States wouldn’t have the freedom that they do today. When early settlers started arriving in America in the early 1700s, most people were looking for a new life where they could practice religion. In England, the King or Queen
would be strict on everyone practicing Anglicanism. Most people would seek America for a freedom to practice something different. Back then, freedom was not a single idea, but a mix of divine rights and privileges that depended on one’s nationality and socials status. Most people thought of it as an abonnement of life from sin to embrace the teachings of God. This would lead to people trying to escape their past life’s and build colonies based on religion. William Penn was one of the first people to bring his beliefs to life and try to build a community. He is the founder of Pennsylvania, and he envisioned the colony as a place for spiritual freedom. William Penn was one of many people that wanted to be able to practice his religion freely with no judgment and no punishments. This was the start of what freedom meant in America. As America progressed, many new ideas had started to form which would lead to the beginning of the American Enlightenment, or known as the Age of Reason. People like John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Rosseau had great influence on political leaders in America. John Locke wrote about how human rights were natural and everyone had rights to life, liberty, and property. He also wrote about how knowledge comes from experience which helped him come up with the idea of a limited government. These ideas had great influence on the people in America, and especially, people like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. There was a shift to how people thought they should be ruled and because of the American Enlightenment it gave people the idea of a revolution to gain their freedom from Britain. The new ideas gave English men a belief in freedom and inherent rights and liberties.
As the idea of freedom progressed in the middle of the 16th century many American’s started to become angry with Britain. Britain started to tax the colonies because they were in debt from the French and Indian War. The first example of a way for Britain to raise revenues was the Stamp Act, which taxed all paper goods. This would lead to ideas of breaking off from Britain. Thomas Paine wrote “Common Sense”, which motivated people to want to become an independent country and fight in the Revolutionary War. The Second Continental Congress stated many objections to British rule and why the United States should be independent. The thought of Freedom changed, and at the time the only way that Americans could be free would to fight in the war and get their independence from Great Britain. George Washington was the commander of the Army and lead the soldiers to new fighting tactics and encouragement that Freedom was possible. The United States won their freedom from the British and became a free and independent Nation. Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and others wrote the Declaration of Independence which officially made American its own separate country. Freedom became the definition of the United States and has lived on since the Revolutionary
War. While America progressed as a new nation and government, new ideas of helpful inventions and the idea of westward expansion came into play. New York state completed the Erie canal in 1825 which was 350 Miles of man-made waterway that linked the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean. New Factories along the streams and rivers created a mass transportation system that helped businesses prosper. These growths created a positive economy that opened up a new perspective on the concept of liberty. The idea of political democracy became essential to the American idea of freedom. Francis Cabot Lowell completely reorganized and centralized the American manufacturing process, which created many jobs in the cities. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, and these inventions changed everything. This created a gradual movement to abolish slavery as it was needed less and less in the north. In the south, however, it created more of a reliance for slavery. This created the first instance where the idea of what freedom meant was viewed differently from the people of America, and would divide the country and create conflicts that would lead to a civil war. There was great controversy with the idea of slavery and if slaves should be freed or not.
Many slaves sought their freedom by running away from the south to the north to create the Underground Railroad System. The opinions on slavery would be the cause of the division of the new nation: The union in the north, and the confederacy in the south. Abraham Lincoln, the president of the time, was against slavery and thought everyone deserved their basic human rights. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation that strengthened the Unions cause for the abolishment of slavery by freeing all slaves from the confederate states if the North won the war. The Union won the Civil war and Abraham Lincoln issued the 13th amendment which abolished slavery. This was a start to granting freedom to all people. Freedom meant something a little different than it did a couple years before, and would continue to be pushed in the years that
followed. The word “Freedom” means something different to each individual. Freedom doesn’t just mean one thing, it can deal with religious freedom, political, or basic human rights. It evolved significantly from the start of early colonialization to the American Civil war, and has shaped the United States to what it would be in the future. People like William Penn, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Cabot Lowell, and Abraham Lincoln played a huge role at different times for expanding the idea of freedom in the United States.