American INSIGHT’s Free Speech STORYLINE presents an interactive and educational timeline of historically significant achievements in the advancement of Free Speech, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law from the sealing of Magna Carta in England in 1215 to the present day.
In America, the quintessential values of freedom of expression, individual rights, and governance by consensus were established mainly by a few important Quaker lawyers during the 50 tumultuous years preceding the signing of the U.S. Constitution.
Largely unnoticed for the past 200 years, this important early American history (with its advancement of individual liberties and principles of democratic government), provides a wealth of knowledge about the personal challenges inherent in building a successful democracy.