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The Land Of The Free

Decent Essays

America, the country known as “the land of the free”, was built on the foundations of freedom, and has maintained this fundamental idea ever since its inception. Throughout America’s history it has been exposed to multiple wars, severe economic depressions, as well as conflict within its own constituents, however, freedom has always remained a constant throughout its history. This constant presence of freedom can easily be shown through the country’s widespread legal conflicts such as the Navigation Acts as well as the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts, as well as through the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment. Although these are only just a couple instances where necessary legal changes occurred for the good of the country, they all are valuable examples of America’s freedom. The Navigation Acts were a set of British established laws, beginning in 1651, that regulated colonial trade directed towards gaining control of world trade previously monopolized by the Dutch. The laws required that “the most valuable colonial products, such as tobacco and sugar – had to be transported in English ships and sold initially in English ports”. This law made it so that all trade that occurred for the colonies had to first go through English ports, thus guaranteeing that the English would gain a portion of the income. These acts, although not a direct threat to American freedom, was one of the initial attempts of the British to assert its authority

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