Explain how freedom of thought and speech were not absolute

Explain how freedom of thought and speech were not absolute rights in eighteenth-century British America.

Solution

Answer:- Freedom of speech was not right of people in 18^th century . People were punished when they talked against government. British America had not given right to people to talk freely against british government or against religion.That was bad time of history of America .

Freedom of speech was not always the all-encompassing right it is today. The English had established legal restrictions on three types of speech — sedition (criticism of the government), defamation (criticism of individuals), and blasphemy (criticism of religion) — each of which they called \"libels.\" Of these three, the one that is most important in terms of political liberty is seditious libel, because ruling elites in Blackstone\'s era believed that any criticism of government or of its officials, even if true, subverted public order by undermining confidence in the government. While the government, according to Blackstone, could not stop someone from criticizing the government, it could punish him once he had done so.