Throughout America's history, the qualities and freedoms of life have changed greatly. Starting with the struggling settlement of Jamestown, and ending with the United States of America, a new nation led by its people and based on radical ideals developed by the philosophers of the Enlightenment. A brief journey of this freedom will be shown in the following paragraphs. In May 1607 three small ships, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery landed in what would later be called Jamestown. The Virginia Company founded this settlement and these first ships brought 104 settler men and boys. The people of Jamestown struggled to survive. Although the Indians welcomed them at first, they soon turned hostile. Famine and disease spread throughout Jamestown. The settlers were so malnourished that they reportedly could barely stand. Lack of food and clean water left the colonists with only 38 survivors in the first year. Jamestown began as a hierarchical place. They were sent there to establish a settlement, in the hope that they would find gold and other precious metals. However they did not find the wealth they had hoped for and the death rate was very high, yet the settlers continued to arrive, seeking a new beginning. In 1620, Plymouth Colony was founded. The pilgrims who came to find religious freedom solved it. The Pilgrims wanted to separate from the Church of England, and that is the main reason they came to America. There was a hierarchy there too, but everyone had the same goal: religious freedom. In 1610 tobacco became the cash crop for the colonists. Tobacco required large tracts of land, yet there were few workers around to process it. In 1618 in an attempt to solve this problem the Headright System……middle of paper……med. The northern colonies were becoming a place where escaped slaves would come to find freedom, and abolitionist groups were working to help free them. Tensions between the North and South would soon spark a civil war that would lead to the deaths of thousands of people. The civil war nearly divided the country, but ultimately united it. The slaves would become free, although it took many years before they were given equal rights, and to this day there are still racial issues. The white man, however, had advocated for a great improvement in rights, and this would lead to an era of possibility. The path to freedom has gone through many changes in America, and after years of abusive power in and out of the colonies it is difficult to believe that the United States has a history of only a few hundred years. This journey has been hard sought and still continues to unfold.