Liberty in the History of America

America is commonly called the “Land of the Free”, but the abundance of liberties, and liberties for all, has not always been the case. The Puritans were some of the first to settle in the New World, but they were self-interested and did not come with the purpose of creating a free state for all. As time progressed, so did their believes, and by the time Tocqueville arrived from France, liberty was an important aspect of American life. So important that people would fight and die for it. Tocqueville, while impressed at the amount liberty and freedoms that citizens had, believed that America had a long way to go before it could call itself a truly free country. Fast forward over a hundred years later, and John Rawls lived in a time were the conversation on equality and justice were major political issues. Rawls proposed a brand new way of looking at concepts of equality and justice and how to define them. The idea of liberty has played a significant role throughout the history of America, however how it is defined and what its implications are have changed from the Puritans, to Tocqueville and finally with John Rawls.

The Puritans came to the New World in the 17th century with the intent to establish a homogenous state where they could practice their religious beliefs freely, but also to create and control a government that would complement their religious society. The Puritans saw the British society that they were living in as oppressive and corrupt. Starting over gave them the opportunity to build the foundations of their society based on Puritan ideology, set the new status quo, and create a new identity for themselves. However, they had no intent of promoting religious freedom in their new country. Democracy, equality and fre...

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...ever, in his writings he does points out serious flaws in the American system and conceptions of justice and fairness. There will always be corruption and self-interest in a society, but a state should strive to create a system that most effectively battles these issues. He is not suggesting that the state of nature or natural distribution is unjust or just, but rather, the justice is defined in the ways that the institutions deal with them.

The concept of liberty has changed throughout its application in American. While the Puritans tried to limit the amount of liberties and who they applied to, Tocqueville was critical of America for excluding so many of its people from basic political and civil liberties. Finally, John Rawls attempted to redefine the social contract by defining the concepts of justice and fairness and how those applied to basic human liberties.