Freedom is the power to act, speak, or think as one desires without any curbs. In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was written to declare to Great Britain that the colonies wanted to be an autonomous nation that was completely free from British rule. In 1789 Olaudah Equiano published his autobiography titled “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, the African” to explain the harsh conditions that came along with being enslaved and taken to America. That same year, the Bill of Rights was written by James Madison to protect the people and grant them certain freedoms to protect them from the government in case this one ever used its power in an abusive manner. These three writings all have something in common, that is that these were (and still are), tools for establishing or preserving freedom in the United States of America because each writing covers topics regarding freedom and either declare freedom, use historical events to express how bad the absence of freedom is, or have the purpose to preserve certain freedoms.
What led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence were the various oppressions the colonies were subject to by England. Some of these unjust treatments were the high taxes, the fact that the king didn’t allow people to immigrate into the colonies, and that he kept soldiers in the colonies during times of peace. The Declaration was written to establish freedom, and Jefferson made this clear by claiming “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…” Basically, what Jefferson was saying is that every single human being is provided with the assured right to live in freedom, and the right to seek the pleasures life has to offer to them by the deity they believe in. With these words Jefferson declares freedom because he’s implying that people have the right to be free.
Looking back at how the tyrant that was King George treated them, the people of the newly independent United States of America sought a way to prevent their own government from becoming corrupt and abusive of its power like the British government before the United States gained its independence. In 1789 James Madison wrote the first ten amendments to the constitution, better known as the Bill of Rights. These amendments granted to Americans were meant to protect citizens from the government in case it followed the footsteps of Great Britain’s treatment towards the colonists, by maltreating its citizens. One of the freedoms that is protected in the Bill of Rights is the first amendment, or freedom speech. This amendment protects the right of citizens to express their opinion to speak, petition their government for changes, and to practice whatever religion if they choose to practice any, Madison emphasized “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.” In other words the government could not make any rules against the practice of any religion, they could not make any laws that keep citizens from saying what they pleased, nor could they take away the right to let people change the government if this one is doing something that citizens do not agree with. This quote is a tool that preserves freedom, because it protects the freedom of expression and religion.
Olaudah Equiano published his autobiography “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, the African” in 1789. There is a particular passage in which Equiano related how as a young boy he was taken from his native land in Africa and deprived of his freedom. In this passage of his narrative, the author retold his experience during his trip across the Atlantic and how the Africans who were enslaved alongside him, were in such a wretched state due to the bad things that came as a result of not being free. The consequence of not being free were described by Equiano in the part in which he wrote “One day, when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea…” The author was trying to emphasize that two enslaved men who were in chains wanted nothing but death, because when they were enslaved and deprived from their freedom, their lives would be nothing but hell. This quote is uses historical events to prove that the absence of freedom is just horrible
