The Contagion of Liberty

Contagion of Liberty Contagion is defined as, “The spread of disease from close contact from one person to another.” Liberty is defined as “The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life”. So from those two definitions the Contagion of Liberty can have both a positive and negative connotations with it. When you think of the word liberty you think of positive things like freedom, our founding fathers, American dream, and therefore The Contagion of Liberty has some very positive aspects to it. Contagion is a word that reminds me of death and disease. I think of things like the bubonic plague, sickness getting out of control, and because of theses associations; just as The Contagion of Liberty has a positive connotations it also has a negative due to the word contagion. Like many things The Contagion of Liberty started with people wanting a change to help themselves and their community. The Contagion of Liberty resulted with more and more people wanting liberty and it is unclear to say the least, where and when it should end. The Contagion of Liberty started with people in the colonies wanting a change of rule from the British Empire and wanting a government for themselves. One of the largest contributing factors to the start of the Contagion was the American Revolution. This revolution created the high taxation without representation and harsh rule over the colonies from the British. Once the colonies got their freedom and liberty other groups of people wanted it too and believed they could be successful in gaining their desired freedoms. One of the more overlooked reasons of the Contagion is human nature and the natural want to have what you don’t. This had a direct impact on other people in the colonies saying that certain groups had liberty so they wanted it too. A great example of this is the members of the Baptist community in the Mass Bay colony wanting religious freedom in a mostly