The Role Of Patriotism In America

Fueled by the indignation of the firebrands pushing the concept of Patriotism in America, the escalation to the Revolutionary War was a time where normal, everyday citizens of the colonies sought to secure their rights, seeking to separate themselves from the tyranny of England. By the end of the 18th century, you either supported the separation from England or moved to British Columbia as soon as possible. How did the Americans become so compelled to liberate themselves from their ancestors? The American Revolution and the following years resulted directly from the colonial citizens of the Americas demanding a shift from England’s rule. Americans wanted a system centered around negative liberty, where they could balance oppressive power with individual rights.

Madsen describes negative liberty as “[the ability to] negate what others (and particularly the government) can do to [you].” (Madsen 117) Most colonists believed that the right course of action was to maximize the amount of individual rights, as shown by the Articles of Confederation, a failed attempt at a governing system. They wanted to break free of everything that England was, and the implementing the idea of negative liberty was best way to oppose England. Within the concept of the harm principle, the Bill of Rights still protected those that chose to hurt others, as seen in Amendments 6, 7, and 8 (Pope & Fox 365-366), with no excessive bail, no cruel and unusual punishment, etc. Even these amendments are an excellent example of negative liberty. American colonists ultimately chose to focus their system around negative liberty because it focused on and emphasized the values and political stand they were taking at the