Since the day America was born, its inhabitants have raised their nation completely and solely on their different interpretations of freedom. Ever since the Declaration of Independence, when America broke away from England, the concept of liberty followed inevitably. Henceforth, each step of America's development is based on what rights each man should have and what the notion of freedom means to each individual. Each change that America took was towards finding its identity, which thus leads to the expansion and definition of the term, freedom. According to Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, each man has his natural rights including his innate right to liberty whereby no established institution or nation can alter, let alone counter. Foner, who wrote The Story of American Freedom, reveals three elements that promoted the notion of freedom according to Americans living in that time. Frederick Douglass' speech for the enfranchisement for African Americans is based on his outlook on the notion of freedom. This document, one of the many, resulted in the writing and passage of the Reconstruction Amendments, which expanded freedom to erase the boundaries of race. These political ideologists illustrate how America moved from its chaotic and nave birth to its grasp on some vague sort of identity whereby liberty has been at its closest to being fully defined according to each author. .
Thomas Paine preconceived America gaining independence from England. His reasons for America to do so involved the notion of every man's natural freedom and rights. It was very foolish of him to state his entire opinion on the affair in such a vague yet uplifting manner at a time when Americans were anxious and nave, unsure of which actions to take and what the consequences of each action would be. The author took advantage of America's anger and resentment towards the British for oppressing them and its confusion on what to do, thus triggering people to come up with rash ideas of what freedom would be for them individually and ideally.