The Supreme Court says, "We cannot accept the view that an apparently limitless variety of conduct can be labeled "speech" whenever the person engaging in the conduct intends thereby to express an idea" The inhabitants of the North American colonies did not have a legal right to express opposition to the British government that ruled them
Nonetheless, throughout the late 1700s, these early Americans did voice their discontent with the crown. For example they strongly denounced the British parliament's enactment of a series of tax levies to pay off a large national debt that England incurred in its Seven Years War with France. In newspaper articles, pamphlets and through boycotts, the colonists raised what would become their battle cry: "No taxation without representation!" The people of the Massachusetts Bay Colony demonstrated their outrage at the tax on tea in a dramatic act of civil disobedience, which lead to the Boston Tea Party. (Eldridge, 15).
The need for freedom of speech was first brought up in Massachusetts Body of Liberties in 1641. After the Revolutionary War in1783, America and many states recommend that free speech be put in the United States Constitution. Nevertheless, freedom of speech was written into the Bill of Rights and was ratified in 1791. A few years after the First Amendment was ratified, the government passed the Sedition Act of 1798. This was to help prevent resistance or rebellion against the government. It also made it illegal to print, write or say "any false, scandalous and malicious" things against the government. And in 1773, the stage was set for the birth of the First Amendment, which formally recognized the natural and inalienable rights of Americans to think and speak freely. .
The First Amendment's early years were not entirely auspicious. Although the early Americans enjoyed great freedom compared to citizens of other nations, even the Constitution's framer once in power, could resist the string of temptation to circumvent the First Amendment's clear mandate.