Freedom In American History Essay

A good candidate for arguably the most fundamental idea in American history, is freedom. Americans ' love of freedom has been represented by conflicts, exploration, alliance. Americans have been notorious for acting on this belief. The term itself has practically been coined a synonym for being American. Of course, other societies also honor freedom. However, in many other countries, the idea does not occupy as much of a prominent place in public and private discourse as it does in America. The term freedom itself could be considered ambiguous. Due to this gray area of uncertainty, the definition has been at the mercy of persistent conflict in American History. The constant change of the idea of freedom, has been a main perpetrator in the diminishing …show more content…
The indians were believed to be savages who lacked a religious affiliation. The settlers were clear about their feelings towards the indians in various journal entries. A journal entry written by David Pietersz de Vries, includes the following statement describing when he needed to persuade his crew to throw supplies off the boat to help them stay afloat. “I then went to them, and asked them whether they would rather trust to the mercy of these barbarians, or throw away the ballast. They answered that while we were in the river, our lives were at the mercy of the ice. I replied that God who had so long aided us, would help us.” Pietersz believed that these indians were savages, and more dangerous than freezing to death. Even though the indians are human too, he still views them as beasts, inevitably seeing them as beneath him. Pietersz clearly showed the early levels of hierarchy in America; indians were below the settlers, and God was above everyone. The new found level of hierarchy laid the foundation for European empires and their settlers to seek power, riches, and freedom in America. However, these “savages” presented a threat towards this new found freedom. Due to the low position the indians held on the American totem pole, the settlers saw no problem wiping them out, or at least attempting to. To the early Americans, freedom presupposed inequality, and their ideas of freedom depended on the inequality of the indigenous