Freedom and Liberty in the Revolutionary Era Research Paper

Founding Fathers

Freedom and Liberty to the Founding Fathers

The founding fathers of the United States of America were a product of the Enlightenment. The "Enlightenment" was the 18th century's attempt to break out of the self-imposed restrictions of society and create something better. (Rosner 2000, 251-253) Beginning with the writings of John Locke in the mid-1600's, a new idea had begun to take root: that man could, through his reason, create better social structures. In other words, man had the ability to create a more perfect form of government, one more in line with the rights of the people. This idea, by its very nature, is an attempt to transfer authority over society from a select few, to the masses of people. The idea of taking power away from Kings, and other rulers, and creating governmental system that would be created and responsible to the people is what the founding fathers of the American nation had in mind when they spoke of freedom and liberty.

John Locke stated in his second treatise on government that "the natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man." (Locke, II, Sect. 22) This was a major influence for the founding fathers because it allows for ordinary people to make their own system of government, and not to be under the arbitrary authority of a monarch.Such a system, where people have no say in their governance, and are subject to arbitrary laws and punishments, were considered to be a form of slavery.

This may seem a strange way of looking at things, especially since many of the men who claimed that the American colonist's relationship to Great Britain was akin to slavery, were owners of human slaves themselves. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were both slave owners and considered the ideals of the Enlightenment, specifically freedom and liberty, were not for those who were of African origin. And while the majority of slaves did not receive information about the American Revolution, its ideals or….....