America’s FreedomKimberly Verduzco-Epperson

July 17, 2012

What is Freedom?• Freedom, Independence, and Liberty refer to

an absence of undue restrictions and an opportunity to exercise one’s rights, powers, desires, or the like– Freedom means belonging to a group or

community of free people– Independence implies a lack of restrictions as well

as the ability to stand alone– Liberty, often interchanged with freedom, also

implies exercise of freedom; separate from an enslaved entity

1754

French and Indian War

1754 1765

French and Indian War

Stamp Act

1754 1765 1767

French and Indian War

Stamp Act

Townshend Act

1754 1765 1767 1770

French and Indian War

Stamp Act

Townshend Act

Boston Massacre

1754 1765 1767 1770 1773

French and Indian War

Stamp Act

Townshend Act

Boston Tea Party

Boston Massacre

1754 1765 1767 1770 1773 1774

French and Indian War

Stamp Act

Townshend Act

First Continental Congress

Boston Tea Party

Boston Massacre

1754 1765 1767 1770 1773 1774 1776

French and Indian War

Stamp Act

Townshend Act

First Continental Congress

Second Continental Congress Boston Tea Party

Boston Massacre

Overview

• By the late eighteenth century, Americans enjoyed more liberties than most people in the world, and they paid lower taxes than the subjects of any other European state

• They came together from very disparate regions and societies because they found common ground in their grievances, their concerns about tyranny, and their notions of self-determination

Overview (con’t)

• The masses were acting upon their conceptualization of liberty and its meaning

• Political philosophies of the Enlightenment were now articulated in simple, easy-to-read pamphlets by revolutionaries like the Englishman Thomas Paine

• Global Age of Revolutions

Different Views, Same Goal• Even though people came from completely different

backgrounds they were able to fight as one for a common goal.

• Women– Saw a chance for more freedoms than they had with English rule

• Economically Challenged– Saw ways in which they could become more efficient, economical,

and be a part of the larger society, by having a broader spectrum of people to trade with

• Slaves– Saw a chance to win their freedoms either by fighting with the

Americans or by escaping to fight for the British

Cost of the War

• About 5,000 African American men and boys • Families were separated• Homes, land, crops, live stock, lives• U.S. troops engaged 217,000• Dead 7,200 in battle

10,000 from disease or exposure 8,500 in British prisons

• 1775-1783 $101 million• FY2011 $2,407 million

What did America win?

• Freedom to self govern• England no longer had the right to grant or

deny freedoms• A government that served and protected the

people• The beginning of a society dedicated to the

concept of Liberty and Equality for all

First

Amendment

• “Before the Revolutionary War, America was a nation divided by different faiths. But when the war for independence sparked in 1776, colonists united under the banner of religious freedom. Evangelical frontiersmen and Deist intellectuals set aside their differences to defend a belief they shared, the right to worship freely.” Kidd

• Parliament stops group meetings and bans people from expressing opinions of elected officials

Freedom of religion,

speech, press, and assembly

Second

Amendment• The colonists in the Boston

Massacre were unable to carry weapons and thus had to protect themselves against British Soldiers with sticks and stones.

• The soldiers were sent to confiscate all of the colonists arms and ammunitions in Lexington.

The right to bear arms.

Third

Amendment• When Britain sent troops to

control the colonies, the colonists were forced to open their homes to the soldiers.

Right to refuse

quartering of soldiers.

Fourth

Amendment• The soldiers were allowed to

come into the homes of colonists and take whatever they wanted and the colonists had no way of fighting back.The right to

protect against unlawful

search and seizure.

The Beginning of The End

• Second Continental Congress declared Americas Independence in July 1776 when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Bibliography

• www.shmoop.com/american-revolution/resources

• Wiki.answers.com• www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us39• God of Liberty: A Religious History of the

American Revolution, by Thomas S. Kidd• www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf• www.boston-tea-party.org/timeline.html