Many immigrants came to the United States for freedom. They knew about America's freedom through media, propaganda, as well as word of mouth. The propaganda included information such as: freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, free education, right of private ownership, right to a trial by jury, and basic civil rights to peruse life, liberty, and happiness free from discrimination based on race, religion, or sexual gender. This definition of freedom comes from a person's culture, background, influences, and experiences in life. There are several immigrants whose lives portrayed both personal and political freedom. Freedom in the United States is having personal liberty to pursue intellectual, emotional, and spiritual goals under the protection provided by the government.
The foundation for American freedom comes from both Thomas Jefferson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Thomas Jefferson said, "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." Jefferson was a philosopher, educator, naturalist, politician, scientist, architect, inventor, pioneer in scientific farming, musician, and writer, and he was the foremost spokesman for democracy of his day. Jefferson believed freedom was "That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Jefferson did not originate the concept of government by consent, and the belief that all people are endowed with certain rights that government cannot infringe upon. These ideas came from European philosophers, Jacques Rousseau. He was a French philosopher, social and political theorist, musician, botanist, and one of the most eloquent writers of the Age of Enlightenment. Rousseau's wish was to inquire whether it be possible, within the civil order, to discover a legitimate and stable basis of Government.