5. Cultural liberty—freedom to establish institutions and to practice certain traditions and customs.
The search for human freedom can be advanced, with historical warrant, as the basic reason for the presence in this country of about 130,000,000 people. Without question, this is the common denominator of our democracy.
Religious Liberty
The vanguard of those seeking refuge from religious persecution arrived on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. John Winthrop founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a refuge for Puritans. Maryland, later on, became the haven for persecuted Catholics. Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams and his group of independent, religious free thinkers. Here, the Quakers found a ready welcome and the Jews, driven out of Europe, were allowed to build their synagogues. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, William Penn and his Quaker followers settled in Pennsylvania and cultivated the most friendly relationships with Indians, colonists, and new settlers alike.
To Manhattan Island and South Carolina came the French Huguenots, a group of French Protestants, whose guarantee of religious liberty had been revoked by the Edict of Nantes. During the nineteenth century, one of the early acts of the Mormons after settling in Utah was to contribute money toward building a Catholic church.
Personal and Political Liberty
To escape political tyranny and oppression, thousands of people left their homes and crossed the Atlantic. Following their unsuccessful rebellion against the English, the Irish came in large numbers. So did the Germans when the Revolution of 1848 failed. Likewise, the Jews left Russia toward the close of the nineteenth century in order to escape intolerable conditions.
Among the great champions of personal liberty has been Thomas Paine, who turned the tide of victory during the Revolutionary War when he declared, “This is the cause for which we are ready to suffer and to die—Freedom for ourselves and the rest of the world.” Another outstanding champion of personal liberty was Carl Schurz, one of the German forty-eighters, who supported men of principles and worthy causes regardless of political affiliations.
Economic Liberty
Coupled with other motives, the newcomer has almost always been imbued with the hope of making a livelihood or of making profits for himself or for his employers. The first permanent settlement was established at Jamestown by the London Company to profit from gold mining and trade. New Hampshire was founded by Georges and Mason for the purpose of profit from trade and farming. The Carolinas were founded by a group of nobles for the same purpose. It was a similar motive which led the Swedes to settle on the Delaware, the Netherlanders to settle on Manhattan, the English to conquer New Amsterdam, and Berkeley and Carteret to settle New Jersey.