Why Did Pilgrims Come?
The main reason pilgrims came to America is they were desperate to escape religious persecution in England in 1620.
These were people who wanted the freedom to worship as they please without government telling them how to worship or what to worship. They wanted the right to choose their own church.
The majority of the first Pilgrims came to America on a ship called the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth. The trip was dangerous and many of them died on the ship from infections, illnesses, and lack of food.
It is true that the first few years were a great hardship for many of them who came to America. Although life was difficult, they stayed because they wanted to a new start and a new way of life for themselves and their families. They believed that America promised them these things.
It didn’t take them long to meet the Indians (the original Americans), who helped them build houses, find food, till the land, and plant vegetables for food.
Founding Fathers
The Founding Fathers were a group of well-educated men who led America in the early stages of her history. These men risked their lives for the freedom of Americans. This began with achieving independence of the thirteen colonies from England, and continued on with the formation of a government for the new nation once the Revolutionary War had been won.
As for specific people, the Founding generation included: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, Thomas Paine, Roger Sherman, John Jay, James Wilson, and Gouvernor Morris. It would be impossible to construct a list which would be accepted by all historians.
If one considers any of the people who participated in the forming of this Republic or of evicting the King to be “Founding Fathers,” then naturally the Framers of the Constitution are a subset of the Founders, since they gave us the format and structure for the Republic. Of course, the number who might be deemed Founding Fathers would be larger than the list of Framers, a case in point being Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were not present at the writing of the Constitution, but were surely Founding Fathers.
Why did the founding fathers protect freedom of the press in the Bill of Rights?
Because they knew that a government-controlled press could not properly serve its citizens, it would only tell the people what the government wanted them to hear. A good example being “Pravda” in the Soviet Union.
The “free press” in the United States, while still not controlled by the govermnent, is mostly under the direction of large corporations which dictate the content of the newspapers, magazines, and TV networks they own, so except for small independent efforts it is no longer really free.
