Victoria Wheeland

Survey of American History

2014

In the beginning of America’s history we had to fight for our freedom, but what exactly is

freedom? Each group had a different view of freedom and their liberties but most of them had a

common goal, separating themselves from the British Parliament. The Americans did some

pretty wild things to try and get the attention of the British to show that they were not going to

take any more crap from them.

During the time of the American Revolution there were many blurred lines to

what liberty and freedom was to mean, it can mean something different to everyone. Thomas

Jefferson tried to put these into terms for them by writing the Bill of Rights, even though he

didn’t specify who could or could not take advantage of these liberties. When people first started

to come to America they kept bringing different religions with them, well according to Jefferson

in the Bill of Rights Congress cannot force a nation wide religion. He also stated that every

citizen had the right to keep their fire arms, even with there being a regulated militia. Under the

Intolerable Acts of 1774 the Bostonians were required to house British troops, so Jefferson put

that no soldier would be quartered in a house without the consent of the owner. In essence he

was trying to protect the American people by making sure they had their rights and freedoms.

In Thomas Payne’s pamphlet “Common Sense” he talks about how we need complete

independence from England. It was the first in a series of pamphlets that we wrote and it was

written a few months after the battle of Lexington and Concord. Although this piece originally
came out anonymously is sold about 150,000 copies from January 1776 to July of the same year,

but altogether it sold upward from 500,000 copies.

1. The Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson

2. “Common Sense” Thomas Payne

According to Payne there has been a long and violent abuse of power in England, and now was

the time to declare our complete independence. People may not have known who the author was

but they very much agreed with Payne’s view or else there would not have been so many copies

of Common Sense sold.

At the time of the Tea Act, put in place on May 10, 1773, the people were becoming

impatient with Parliament in Britain. They were getting highly upset because Parliament was

taxing them without proper representation. Americans did not believe they were getting their due

rights and wanted to prove that they were not going to put up with it, that is where the Boston

Tea Party comes into play. On the 17 of December 1773 a large group of Americans that were in

Boston came up with a plan to raid Griffin’s wharf and dump the tea in the harbor. They dressed

up as Native Americans and split into groups and stormed the three ships. Contrary to popular

belief it was not chaotic. According to George R. T. Hewes it was actually pretty orderly. Their

soul purpose in this was to show Britain that they could just be pushed around, that they were

asserting their freedom, although they were not yet a free country.

They saw liberty as something that you naturally had if you were a certain demographic,

white male land owners. Other than that you had to fight for your own rights (i.e., liberties)

because every other group did not have the rights. Women were treated like they were owned,

they had to stay at home and take care of the house and do everything for their husbands.
Women also did not have the right to vote, they were not given the simple liberties that citizens

deserved.

3.George R.T. Hewes “A Retrospect on the Boston Tea Party”

The slaves viewed liberties and freedom in a completely different way, they tried to escape to the

norther states to try and escape slavery so they could just have simple liberties, like being able to

not worry about getting beat. Even after the Revolution women and slaves still were fighting for

their simple freedoms.

The time of the American Revolution was hard for the entire nation, they were trying to

figure out what freedoms and liberties they deserved. They were fighting to become their own

nation, and also struggling with who could have rights in this new nation. All they wanted was

liberty, as Patrick Henry once stated trying to convey the nations message “Give me liberty or

give me death!” Freedom was all the nation was trying to strive for, and after years of bloodshed

and dealing with England’s tyranny, they finally got it.