How did American liberal thought change, over the course of the period 1607 to 1860? Who is entitled to liberty? What kind of liberty or equality is desirable? Are liberty and equality always good things?

The Evolution of American Thinking

For the second part of your exam essay, describe the evolution of American thinking about the meaning of liberty, rights, and equality, culminating with the Cooper Union Address you analyzed in part one.

Here are some of the questions you will wish to address:

How did American liberal thought change, over the course of the period 1607 to 1860? Who is entitled to liberty? What kind of liberty or equality is desirable? Are liberty and equality always good things?

What are some of the tensions or contradictions within American liberalism, and how did American thinkers confront them (think, for example, about patriarchy, or about slavery)?

What major events occurred that focused American attention on these topics, and induced American or British writers to discuss them? Label this part of your exam essay “Evolution of American Liberalism, 1607-1860.” This section of your essay should be roughly 2000 words—about eight pages.

As with part one, you will wish to do some background research to help you think about this problem. There are several good sources which you might consult–one of them is:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/liberalism (Links to an external site.)

(In general, when you read essays like this one, you want to keep you focus on what is most important for our purposes in this class–we care most about the evolution of liberalism in the United States. After 1776, thinkers outside the US are much less relevant for our purposes.)