Topics: Foreign Advocates of Freedom

• Alexis de Tocqueville

  Alexis de Tocqueville wrote one of the most profound discussions of American democracy in the 19th century. He was particularly impressed by the role of First...

• Algernon Sidney

  Algernon Sidney was the world’s most celebrated martyr for free speech. Sidney became a hero to American Founding Fathers who used the First Amendment to...

• John Lilburne

  The Englishman John Lilburne (1615–1657) was a prominent defender of religious liberties and free speech and a celebrated political prisoner...

• John Locke

  English philosopher John Locke's ideas of natural law, religious toleration, and the right to revolution proved essential to the American Revolution and the U.S...

• John Milton

  John Milton made an important contribution to the idea of free speech and free press in a pamphlet, Areopagitica, published in response to a restrictive...

• John Stuart Mill

  John Stuart Mill became a guiding light for individual liberty. Practical applications of First Amendment principles often rest upon allusions to his ideas...

• John Wilkes

  John Wilkes was an Englishman who championed free expression and individualism during the 18th century. He was prosecuted for seditious libel and obscenity...

• Joseph Priestley

  Joseph Priestley was a notable figure of the 18th century Enlightenment. He had a major influence on the First Amendment principles of religious liberty in the...