Americans have always felt that liberty and equality are of utmost importance. Throughout American history, people have protested, fought, and died for their chance at equality. When European colonists and Native Americans met in the New World, they were no different. Each group had their own ideas about what liberties they were entitled to, and they were willing to do almost anything for freedom and equality. .

             When the colonists arrived in the New World, they felt that they had many sources from which they could extract freedom. The first source of this liberty was the New World itself. Many of the colonists who immigrated to America during the late 16th and early 17th centuries were coming from an unpleasant lifestyle. England at that time was a land of feudalism and poverty. In order to survive, many peasants took to thievery.

             When these peasants came to the New World, they saw myriad opportunities to create a better life for themselves. In particular, they saw the possibility of freedom. However, the New World offered some contrasting ideas to the colonists. It gave them the chance to start over in a place 3,000 miles away from England. It was a land that did not yet know poverty, one where they could set up their own way of life. But at the same time, the colonists were to remain under the protection, guidance, and laws of the English crown. .

             At first the colonists were content to be ruled by their mother country. They obeyed England"s commands, as long as these commands did not take away any of their .

             new found freedoms. However, the colonists" respect for England decreased as time went on. The citizens of the New World continued to obey England as long as they benefited from her laws, but they slowly began to ignore any and all decrees that took away their rights to profit from the land. For "commodities," as they were termed, were some of the colonists" most basic sources of freedom.