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Introduction
The idea of American freedom was influenced by historical and social events, economic and constitutional changes. During 19th century, political leaders argued that the Republic was founded on a principle, which, if applied as the founders intended, would extend freedom to the enslaved Negroes; and that this higher law of nature appeal, written into the Declaration, was later incorporated into the fundamental law of the land, in the clause of the Constitution which guarantees to every State a republican form of government.
Such implications were made by the anti-slavery group on each occasion that the issue of slavery was drawn in the Congress, and reverberated wherever the institution of slavery was subjected to attack within the South. As pro-slavery thinkers prepared their defense, much of their attention was directed at meeting the natural rights appeal to the fundamental law of nature. In one way or another, in order for them to defend slavery logically, they had to break down the force of the argument that all men have a natural right to freedom.
History
At the beginning of 18th century, the idea of American freedom was influenced by the idea of Englishmen and his independence. The natural rights argument against slavery inevitably suggests itself as a corollary to the general principle asserted in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Anti-slavery leaders during the coming generations assumed that the signers consciously accepted such an application of their statement (Foner 5).
Closely fused with the natural rights attack on slavery was the contention that slavery was inconsistent with the theory and policy on which the Americans fought the Revolution. As the Colonists began to examine their own rights they could not avoid seeing the incompatibility of contending for liberty while they were holding members of their own species in abject bondage. The argument that a logical extension of the Revolutionary principles would cover slavery made an impression on the thinking of many Southerners as well as Northerners.
Indications of the nature and content of the defense that was gradually forming during the first half of the eighteenth century, however, can be found reflected in the anti-slavery writings. Hepburn included in his dialogue between a Christian and a slaveholder, for purposes of refutation, the current pro-slavery arguments. An indication of the character of the philosophic defense that formed to meet the natural rights attack of the Revolutionary period may be found in the discussion over emancipation in Massachusetts.
In that State public opinion appears to have been fairly evenly divided on the issue. At the Harvard commencement exercises in 1773, a debate was held on the question of the legality of enslaving the Africans, and the argument of the affirmative speaker probably reflected the prevailing pro-slavery thought of the period. The question debated was whether or not slavery was agreeable to the law of nature. Slavery was the main institution of capitalism aimed to increase profits and revenues.
The New World plantation, appearing historically with the rise of world markets, resembles in some ways the Old World manor (Foner 8). The New World plantation developed in areas of accessible markets: along coastal regions, inland waterways, archipelagoes, and sea islands, locations from which staples could reach foreign markets. The plantation was an instrument in the growth of trade and industrial development, and can be viewed as a frontier region in the world community. Since labor is the first requisite for the plantation system, laborers must necessarily be imported if the native population cannot successfully supply the laboring force, or if there is a labor shortage.
During 19th century, the idea of freedom was changed from anti-slavery issue to universal freedom based on equality between social classes, between women and men, between blacks and whites. The answer to this question became obvious, because the right to authority in the first two cases was founded on “the greatest good of the whole.”
Just as the right of absolute authority of the Creator was not based solely upon the relation of Creator and created, but also upon “the natural imperfection and dependence of the creature and the natural perfection of the Creator” in accomplishing the greatest happiness for the creation; so the limited authority of the parents over their children was not based on the notion of derived existence, but on “the different qualifications of parents and children to exercise this immutable law” and insure more happiness to both (Foner 23).
Paine disguised his dependence on English thought and experience so effectively that few readers spotted it. John Adams believed his views on government came from and were included only to please (Foner 15). Paine sensed the need for more than a straight factual account of the retreat to revive faith in the army. The enemy hovered on the east bank of the Delaware and might at any moment decide to attack Philadelphia. The people’s spirit as well as the army’s must be aroused.
It was always Paine’s heartfelt conviction that America was the sole hope for struggling humanity and that “posterity will be affected even to the end of time.” Like most political activists Paine found it difficult, as Edward Freeman Hawke effectively describes, to move from the poetry of revolution to the prose of housekeeping. Not surprisingly, then, Tom Paine left America just as the founding fathers were drafting a new constitution to seek out the era of the common man in the chaos of the French Revolution, and where he was finally imprisoned.
Throughout the war Paine attempted to make Americans understand that the conflict was more than a civil war, that it was nothing less than a revolution (Foner 16, 18). Those who knew him found it easy to explain why after the Revolution Paine retired to Bordentown “to the enjoyment of a quiet life” and kept his distance from the issues that stirred so many of his friends. He was preoccupied during the first two years of peace wrangling rewards for himself from the states and the national government (Foner 38).
The Constitution and Bills of Rights granted the nation freedom of speech and freedom of religion, right to keep and bear arms, freedom of assembly and freedom of petition. The historiography declares loudly that the war for independence has many faces. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence proved to be not only the opening gun for civil war within the British empire, but the most momentous historical event of the entire 18th century in that it provided the occasion for the European powers to set the stage for a redress of grievances. Thus the war for independence quickly became entangled in the web of European politics by setting into motion a train of events which brought most of the so-called Atlantic community into war..
Concepts of nationhood embracing all Africans in America had not evolved and occasional efforts to create unity of two or more tribes to oppose the colonizing whites brought little response. As in other colonial situations, national consciousness was slow to grow and was kept retarded by colonial power policies of dealing separately with each African entity. It grew, as elsewhere, as education, printed expression, religious organization and other factors of broadening consciousness developed (Foner 22).
The new Europeans were seen as not “American” enough, and they were pressured to give up their strange and threatening ways and to assimilate. Although it might have taken several generations, the offspring that were successful in this process could usually expect to become accepted citizens.
African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans were second-class Americans. They were seldom welcomed and were told to “stay in your place” and were not allowed into the mainstream culture of the privileged, even when “fully acculturated.” The beginning of 18th century was marked by contradictions between Britain and the US and rejection of the merchants and the state to pay taxes to the British Crown. Further the Monroe doctrines prohibited colonization of America by European nations. Capitalist relations shaped national identity and determine relations between men. For instance, no man had a right to vote if he was not wealthy enough (Foner 55).
Summary
In sum, the history of the United States has been the history of wealth accumulation and capitalist relations based on exploitation of racial/ethnic minorities. Western European cultures, which formed the fabric of the United States of America, are relatively homogeneous when compared not only with the rest of the world but also with the increasing diversity in this country. This Euro-American worldview continues to form the foundations of educational, social, economic, cultural, and political systems. The idea of freedom benefited not only from the many proud accomplishments of their ancestors but also from their shameful acts.
Works Cited
Foner, E. The Story of American Freedom. W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.
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