where did colonists get the belief in personal freedom
American Revolution John Locke's (1632â€“1704) ideas on liberty influenced the political thinking behind the revolution, especially through his indirect influence on English writers such as John Trenchard, Thomas Gordon, and Benjamin Hoadly, whose political ideas in turn had a strong influence on the American revolutionaries.[103] Locke is often referred to as "the philosopher of the American Revolution" due to his work in the Social Contract and Natural Rights theories that underpinned the Revolution's political ideology.[104] Locke's Two Treatises of Government published in 1689 were especially influential. He argued that all humans were created equally free, and governments therefore needed the "consent of the governed."[105] In late eighteenth-century America, belief was still widespread in "equality by creation" and "rights by creation".[106]
No taxation without representation "No Taxation Without Representation" is a slogan originating during the 1750s and 1760s that summarized a primary grievance of the American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution. In short, many in those colonies believed that, as they were not directly represented in the distant British Parliament, any laws it passed affecting the colonists (such as the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act) were illegal under the Bill of Rights 1689, and were a denial of their rights as Englishmen.