Before Jefferson or Locke echoed across the colonies, there were the Levellers: radical Englishmen who fought tyranny with pen and sword, declaring all men were born with “natural rights.” Their ideas helped ignite the very spirit that birthed America.
Let’s dive in. 🇺🇸 #AmRev
The Levellers emerged during England’s Civil War (1640s); a time when kings claimed divine right and Parliament bowed low. But ordinary soldiers and citizens began to ask: by what authority? They believed liberty came not from kings, but from God and nature.
Their leaders, John Lilburne, Richard Overton, William Walwyn, wrote pamphlets demanding freedom of conscience, equality before the law, and representative government.
Their rallying cry? “Freeborn Englishmen.”
They published An Agreement of the People: a proto-constitution calling for popular sovereignty, term limits, religious freedom, and equality under the law. It was a century before Jefferson wrote, “All men are created equal,” yet the echo is undeniable.
At Putney, Leveller officers faced Cromwell and Ireton, arguing that government must serve all, not the wealthy few. Thomas Rainsborough thundered: “The poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he.” The room fell silent, but history remembered.
Their vision terrified the elites. Cromwell crushed their movement, and many Levellers were imprisoned or executed. Yet their words survived, crossing oceans and centuries, whispered through Locke, Montesquieu, and Jefferson.
When American patriots rose against the Crown, they didn’t just inherit English rights, they inherited Leveller principles: consent of the governed, liberty of conscience, and resistance to tyranny. They fought to make those ideas real on a new continent.
John Adams once said, “The Revolution was in the minds of the people before the war commenced.” That Revolution began in English hearts a century earlier, with the Levellers’ cry for liberty under God, not monarchy.
The Levellers failed in their time,
but their rebellion lived on in the American experiment. Where England silenced them, America gave their ideals a home. Their legacy reminds us: liberty is born from moral courage, not comfort.
Freedom must be tended like a flame, or it fades into servitude. The Levellers taught that true liberty demands virtue, sacrifice, and faith in something higher than man’s rule. That lesson built a Republic. Will we remember it? 🇺🇸 #AmRev
Value for Value: if this thread sparked thought or rekindled your faith in the roots of liberty, give back what value you got. Reshare it. Teach it. Or join me in the mission to resurrect the American spirit by subscribing to my Substack (link in bio). 🇺🇸🫡
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