Rebecca Gertler 11th Grade Summer HW Questions for Eric Foner’s The Story of American Freedom 1. Where does the American idea of freedom or liberty originate? The original idea of freedom in America was brought by the first puritan settlers in colonial Massachusetts, and was a spiritual thing, as oppose to religious or social. Many of these settlers’ original goal in the colonies was obtain a religious freedom they were not granted in England. They believed in Christianity and thought that their