Did the west influence American beliefs about freedom?

Question

American beliefs about freedom

Answer 1

The "West" per se, or just the abundance of land beyond the Appalachias?  Absolutely.  There was a need for independence and also a community need for co-operation.

Each family had to depend on itself to produce the food and basics it needed, and it had to pool resources for defense against hostile natives and other European settlers.

But they also brought their rights as Englismen with them.  They had the Magna Carta and English common law as astarting point. They evolved concepts of privacy rights beyond ECL.  And they experimented with different systems like an independent judiciary, as opposed to "the king's court" and parlaimentary courts.