What is American Freedom?

Considering the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I have been thinking a lot about what freedom means. One of the big four questions I ask of my history student is, what is American freedom? I often ask this in class discussion board posts and many students often reply with the following answer:

American freedom is being able to do whatever you want within the bounds of the law.

At which I always reply that I completely disagree. There are a lot of things that are not illegal that are also not good for you or produce freedom. No one would look at an alcoholic and say that they are free. They are in fact a slave to their addiction. So, I will pose the question here, what is American freedom?

One thing that I do know is that it seems to be deeply tied to virtue and morality without which you are, as I stated, a slave to your base desires. I for one, do not wish to be a slave to my flesh.

So please take some time over the next few months and think about this question. What is American freedom?