Essay On Liberty In America

Everyone has their own version of what the definition of freedom is here in the United States but the basic definition it is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Under the circumstances of following the laws. As time has gone on it has helped freedom come along way with all the different eras and the ups and the downs that occurred that has shaped us to that “American Dream” of freedom we have today. There are many events that helped shape Americans freedom today and these are just some of the events that really helped push the rights we have today, woman starting to get jobs, slaves getting freed, Native Americans sharing land, segregation, equal rights to all and passing the law for gay marriage.

Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.

Liberty means being granted the rights of an American. For example, freedom of speech is the right to share thoughts publicly whether it be written or spoken. Americans are often oppressed for using freedom of speech, but the sole purpose of it is to be heard and to express a person’s thoughts. One heated topic in the U.S. today is the right to bear arms, which can be found in the amendments

Liberty would be defined in one’s own words as, the power to act as one pleases, and being free within the society in which one stays. The society and the mindset of the majority of the early American colonists were based around liberty and the whole meaning behind it, and they wanted to make a society based upon the idea of it. A River View High School teacher says, the society of this period in time was as close to anarchy as possible (Justice 2016).This, in other words, is saying they had their own voice in the way they chose to live and pursue their own happiness. The American colonists and the founding fathers never let anything get in the way of their beliefs, hence the reason they were lead into so many wars and battles. The colonists

“May we not think of freedom as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to what is right.” (Peter Marshall). Some people don’t think about freedom as that. Freedom is doing the right thing but when one chooses to do it. Freedom is being able to have certain rights like speaking your mind, and making one’s own decisions.

Throughout history, Americans have sought to spread the spirit of equality, which is believed to be the realization of true freedom. Before establishing this freedom, every American had only one question stuck in their head: What is freedom? Our country received it in the year of 1776 from the British through a series of difficulties and wars. African Americans defined it as an escape from slavery, while immigrants defined it as their acceptance into a new society. More yet, women of the women’s suffrage defined their freedom as their recognition into society and for their rights to be equal to that of every other man. These different perceptions of cultures/groups in America tied together to form an American view of freedom. Freedom is

Liberty is defined as the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views. It is commonly overlooked by today’s society that liberty wasn’t guaranteed and protected in the 1600s compared to how it is today. In colonial North America, various groups struggled to attain their basic human right to liberty. It was constantly sought after from the Native Americans and white British men. Between these two groups, however, were different goals and an overall meaning of freedom and liberty. The Native Americans considered liberty as the right to land, spiritual worship, and the well-being and security of community; meanwhile, the white British men regarded liberty as the right to property, self-government, and an exemption from taxes.

America is the universal symbol of freedom. But is it really free? Does the history of the United States stay true to the ideas of our forefathers? Or has the definition been altered to fit American policies? Has freedom defined America? Or has America defined freedom? I believe America was at first defined by freedom, then after time, America defined freedom, altering the definition to fit the niche it fits in, but still keeping key components so it still seems to be staying true to the ideas of America’s founding fathers.

Freedom has a large range of meaning. The encyclopedia Britannica defines freedom as “the quality or state of being free, and the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” (Britannica). In the American society there is a lot of emphasis on freedom, and the right to be free, but one must question to what extent we are truly “free”.

America is commonly called the “Land of the Free”, but the abundance of liberties, and liberties for all, has not always been the case. The Puritans were some of the first to settle in the New World, but they were self-interested and did not come with the purpose of creating a free state for all. As time progressed, so did their believes, and by the time Tocqueville arrived from France, liberty was an important aspect of American life. So important that people would fight and die for it. Tocqueville, while impressed at the amount liberty and freedoms that citizens had, believed that America had a long way to go before it could call itself a truly free country. Fast forward over a hundred years later, and John Rawls lived in a time were the

The names and faces of those considered pioneers in the fight for rights and freedom may not be instantly recognizable, but nevertheless, they are an important part to the history of the United States of America. Throughout the history of our country, there has not just been an injustice towards black slaves, but also towards women, with both being unfairly discriminated against. It was the work of many individuals who brought the unfamiliar taste for rights for all God’s creatures to the mouths of many people. The impact of such people, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass, towards the demand for rights for women and slaves cannot be measured.

The American Ideological Consensus is that “…the American people have shared much of the same ideals, the same basic principles, and the same patterns of belief” (McClenaghan 104). When America filled itself with ideologically homogenous people, their beliefs started to define our nation and became American identities. If asked what they think of America, peoples of other nations would say that the roads are made of glass, opportunity is in the air, and civil rights are plentiful. These accounts maybe accentuated; however, the underlying message is that the American people have more freedoms then the peoples of other nations do. The most widely known American identity is freedom, and even though that American identity has been tried and

Negative and positive liberty are best understood as distinct values within Berlin’s own scheme of value pluralism. While an increase in either is desirable, ceteris paribus, attempting to maximize any single idea of liberty without regard to any other values necessarily entails absurd and clearly undesirable conclusions; any sensible idea of jointly maximizing freedom in general, therefore, must acknowledge the tradeoffs inherent in increasing one aspect of freedom or another. The tension here is akin to the familiar tradeoff between equity and efficiency concerns in economics; negative and positive freedom are not diametrically opposed, but the two ideals may not be individually maximized at the same time.

     The perception of liberty has been an issue that has bewildered the human race for a long time. It seems with every aspiring leader comes a new definition of liberty, some more realistic than others. We have seen, though, that some tend to have a grasp of what true liberty is. One of these scholars was the English philosopher and economist J.S. Mill. Mill's On Liberty provided a great example of what, in his opinion, liberty is and how it is to be protected. In this essay we will examine Mill's ideals concerning liberty and point out a few things he may not have been realistic about.

of us fail to cherish and value our granted freedom. Many of us do not