The Myth Of Freedom

Ideas and myths shape people’s everyday lives. They determine aspects of being, such as the way one talks, the way one writes, and even the way one thinks. These “myths” are simply ideas that are generally shared throughout the public, about a place or thing. One of these myths was the myth of freedom in The New World. Freedom is the right to make independent choices about one’s life, without restriction by law or by tyranny, and The New World was the land west of Europe, comprising North America, South America and their surrounding islands. The myth was that The New World was a land of opportunity, where one was not restricted by the governments of Europe, and where one was free to create one’s own government and practice one’s own religion. …show more content…
Her colonies stretched from the swamps of Georgia to the cold forests and rocky fields of New England. These colonies were very prosperous for many years, and they, for the most part, managed themselves of a long time. This “Age of Salutary Neglect” did not last forever, though. “From the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century--the so-called age of Age of Salutary Neglect--the British monarchy rarely involved itself directly in the administration of colonial affairs . . . Around 1750, this American cultural independence came to an end” (McClellan 100). When this age ended, England began to have a more direct influence on the colonies, enacting tax laws and regulating their trade. The citizens disliked these limitations, they believed that the limitations restricted their freedoms, the reason many people migrated to The New World. The dislike became widespread, and the colonies engaged increasingly in violent actions against the British Crown. These violent actions turned into full on rebellion, and a formal declaration of independence was drafted by supporters of the rebellion now known as “The Founding Fathers”. This document, appropriately named The Declaration of Independence stated that, “all men are . . . endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness . . . That whenever any Form of …show more content…
“The most serious flaw in the government created by the Articles of Confederation was its inability to raise money” (McClellan 153). Without a way to raise money easily, the United States was quickly going bankrupt, and all of the sacrifices that were made to achieve independence were soon going to be for naught. At the same time, a man named Daniel Shays was frustrated because he had not received his proper compensation for his participation in the War for Independance. He took matters into his own hands, by organizing a group of men and rebelling against the government. “In January, 1787, Shay and his men attacked the Federal Arsenal at Springfield . . . Shays’ Rebellion did make it perfectly clear that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate for the needs of the United States” (McClellan 154-155). Without the freedom secured in The Declaration of Independance and The Articles of Confederation, it is possible that Shays’ Rebellion might not have been such a great success. In essence, this rebellion was similar to the one ten years prior. A group of people felt that their rights (in this case, pursuit of happiness) were being squandered by a government, as a result, they had the right to alter or abolish the government. Shays’ rebellion worked, and the government was altered significantly at the Constitutional Convention. A new defining