The Importance Of Freedom In America

Freedom is how we are living, it’s how we stand, and it’s how we are free to speak out. In my opinion freedom means the power to act, speak, live, and think as we want without any harm or limit from somebody. Everyday citizens are working and doing hard labor to try and keep America civilized. I highly respect people who work and make an effort to maintain our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. America is Where everybody wants to go and is why people leave their hometown because of freedom. America is supposedly the land of the free. I feel though as if our nation is falling apart. As stated by John F. Kennedy, “America is filled with both crisis and opportunity.” This meaning you can make your “life experience” in America good or bad but there’s always hope. America can fall apart with terrorist attacks or events like 9/11 but these events is how we make allies and how the citizens of America work together as a team no matter your race, gender, experience, or status there is a job to be completed and that is the main reason how America gets stronger.

The Fourth of July is about America’s freedom, yet it is ironic to be celebrated when people of a different race are not allowed to celebrate freedom. Our fathers fought for freedom of all, not for different races to have more control of life than others. They fought for the equality of all and for everyone to have the freedom they deserve. “With them, nothing was settled that was not great. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final. Not slavery and oppression” (Douglass 2). The people who fought for our freedom believed they were fighting for the liberty of all, instead slavery still existed in society. To slaves, the Fourth of July is not the day of celebrating freedom, it is just another day of hard work and without liberty. “To him your celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty, your national greatness… your shouts of liberty and equality” (Douglass 4). The irony of American freedom falls where the constitution lies since the constitution is looked at as the liberty document of an unliberated and unequal country. “If the constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave holding instrument, neither slavery , slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it” (Douglass 4). Slavery is not part of the “Glorious liberty document” so why is is able to exist? It should not be acceptable to call

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.

Americans all over the country pride themselves on the rights and freedoms that their ancestors have fought for. To the American people, freedom is expressed in multiple documents from our history, these including the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The first sentence of the third paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is compelling and inspiring to the American People because of the strong language it uses, the power it gives to the people to make them feel safe and secure, and it makes the people feel like the country truly belongs to them.

Douglass continues to talk about how they all came to celebrate the fourth of July, but to remember that the nation is still young and has room for positive change. Douglass then asks this question, "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” (p.407) By us Douglas is meaning blacks. This is supported by when he states that, “This Fourth of July is yours not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” (p.408) Slaves and former slaves like Douglass are only saddened on Independence Day because they still have no independence to cheer for. They were lied to and taken for granted after all the work they did to earn equal rights. To ask black people to celebrate the White man’s freedom is only teasing and disrespectful irony.

“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless…” This is one of the vigorous statements made by Frederick Douglass in his speech What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?. In this speech, Douglass explains the viewing point of what Independence Day models for an American slave.

As Douglass stated in his poignant speech, there were not many reasons to celebrate the fourth of July if one was a slave. To the white man, this holiday represented the freedom and independence that they earned by defeating the British. These men were now truly free. This was not the case for many ethnic groups at this time. The idea of freedom was still just a dream to them. It was never discussed that the way this freedom was

The United States was not truly a “land of the free” during the period from colonial times to the Civil War. During this time, the United States was not in a good place concerning freedom. Slavery was a big and debated issue, the Dred Scott Decision caused much controversy, and made many people question their country’s freedom, and the American Revolution took place between the colonial times and the Civil War. These three huge events in history made people during that time question their independence, and it is still a widely wondered question today. Freedom will always be debated widely among the people of America, but it is obvious that the United States was not free during this time.

These words meant that we were completely free from all British Rule and we were independent states that held absolutely no allegiance to the British Crown and had no connection between them. Our Founding Fathers helped make this resolution and to this day we continue to reap the benefits of their success. On July 4th, 1776 our Founding Fathers along with others joined together to sign the Declaration of Independence!

The Founding Fathers of our nation fought hard for our freedom, justice, liberty, and independence. In the constitution, they wrote that all people are to be treated equally, but people have acted out against this statement and disregarded it with slavery. The constitution does not contain anything about the idea of slavery; therefore, people felt that it was okay to bring it into our free and united country. With slavery, the mistreatment of people and the division in our country increased. Slaves did not receive equal rights as compared to other members of the country. Slavery created many problems in our country and nobody had the courage to stand up to the wealthy oppressors of this issue. “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not me.” This quote shows how the slaves of our country do not get to rejoice in happiness on the fourth of July because they do not receive the same liberty, justice, prosperity, and independence that most other people of this nation receive. The slaves are viewed as property and do not get any respect for their hard work in our economy and country. As stated, slaves do not feel the same sense of liberty and justice than all other members of our country because of the mistreatment and abuse they receive

Freedom at its start in America came from the pressure to leave England. To escape the bonds of an unjust King colonist sailed the Atlantic hoping to find a new home. During that time in England, many British citizens were facing religious and social persecution. This is what prompted the movement to establish the colonies in America. The colonists were free to set up a new world in their own image. However, the colonists were still under unjust rule even though being an ocean away from their homeland. Upset with their freedom being restricted the 13 colonies banded together to declare their independence to escape confinement from British imperial rule. After winning the revolutionary war and gaining one step of freedom from England it was time to set up a new kind of government.

As stated by Professor Martin, the idea of ‘granting freedom to slaves’ cannot solely be rhetorically established in the halls of Congress; it is a constant grapple for dignity and respect that needs to be actualized, impelled and perceived. A book named “To’ Joy to My Freedom,” by Tera W. Hunter, delineates how the process of “destructing slavery was accomplished with the participation of slaves themselves, not just by military maneuvers or decisions promulgated in the White House.” In the most thoughtful

Even though freedom has been our nation’s identity for its entire existence, our nation has suffered “dark ages” when the freedoms of African Americans were repressed. During the period of slavery, African Americans were forced to labor under often cruel and gruesome conditions, for their white masters. Solomon Northup, a free man forcefully made a slave, describes his thoughts on slavery in his 12 Years a Slave:

As citizens of the United States, we do not realize how privileged we are to live in a country, a democracy, a free market system, where we can have a say in how systems are run and who does what in the government. What we don’t reflect often enough on how this came to be. Instead, we whine(I mean tweet) about the fact that our president doesn’t attend this conference or that conference or that he made these comments or even maybe that he has orange hair. We have lost our sense of gratitude for what we really have. I am not referring to the corvette sitting idle in one’s garage, or the beautifully paved sidewalk, or the remarkably fast service we receive from the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) office. I am referring to the inherent freedom we have, the fact that the government does not control every area of our lives, the fact that we are better off economically, politically, and socially that any other country in the world. This is all the result of the sleepless nights spent by our forefathers, trying to solve the problems of inequality in a world riddled with the needlessly spent blood of innocent victims. 1776 depicts this realm, this era which lacked a reasonable system of government. It ultimately captures the turning point of this time, when hard work, logic, a want of liberty from tyranny, and good leadership were the essential ingredients for freedom and democracy.

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