Freedom 1

When the pioneers settled the new world, they took risks that few of us would consider today. Many of those who left their homeland died on the way, or lost loved ones to disease, starvation or exposure. When they arrived, they faced crushing hardship and great danger as they began the process of establishing a new life.

Think about it: no house or means of transportation; no streets or roads; no grocery store or job to go to; no hospitals for the sick, no police to call on in time of need; no community, no friends, no neighbors. Only you and the loved ones who managed to survive the journey.

It begs the question: what was so bad about their lives in the old world, that would move them to risk everything – and everyone – they had to begin a new life in the unknown?

Many of those who settled the new world left behind them lives of oppression and adversity as tenant farmers. They owned none of the land they worked, and continually faced the prospect of eviction from their home and livelihood in the event that they couldn’t make rent. When rumors of free land began to circulate through the hillsides and hamlets of the old world, many could scarcely believe it (remember Far and Away?).

But in retrospect, weren’t they simply trading hardship for hardship? What did the new world offer that was so compelling that it moved millions to risk all they had to obtain it?

Freedom.

Not even that – it was the prospect of freedom. Merely the possibility of owning their own land and being beholden to none. Even when weighed against great risk, and with no assurance of a positive outcome, the hope of freedom was enough to compel the early settlers to leave all they knew behind and move to the new world.