Which has its foundations in the First Amendment...
Before then, "free speech" as a concept did not exist. (The closest was the freedom of religious practice, which is not the same thing.)
Before then, "free speech" as a concept did not exist. (The closest was the freedom of religious practice, which is not the same thing.)
Now that is a heavy claim to be making. Do you have anything to back it up?
Before the U.S., nobody even thought free speech was possible. England was the closest, but their version of free speech was still subject to government censorship.
It was the writings of the Founding Fathers, and the Bill of Rights in particular, that established the doctrine that is today known as "freedom of speech."
"The free communication of thoughts and of opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: any citizen thus may speak, write, print freely, except to respond to the abuse of this liberty, in the cases determined by the law."