SoapBox Law

Soapbox is a temporary platform employed while making a spontaneous or nonofficial public speech. The term starts off from the days when speakers would raise themselves by standing on a wooden crate initially used for shipment of soap or other dry goods from a manufacturer to a retail store. In public places like London’s Hyde Park Individuals can advocate one cause or another. Some speakers in these public forums will carry a ‘soapbox’ to project their voice and to be spotted by those who might come together. 

During the 19th century and into the 20th, before the invention of corrugated fiberboard, manufacturers employed wooden crates for the shipment of wholesale merchandise to retail establishments. Discarded containers of all sizes were readily obtainable in most towns. These “soapboxes” made free and easily handy temporary platforms for street corner speakers trying to be seen and heard at improvised “outdoor meeting,” to which passersby would meet to hear frequently provocative speeches on political or religious themes.

Soapbox

A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech, often about a political subject. The term originates from the days when speakers would elevate themselves by standing on a wooden crate originally used for shipment of soap or other dry goods from a manufacturer to a retail store. The term is also used metaphorically to describe a person engaging in often flamboyant impromptu or unofficial public speaking, as in the phrases "He's on his soapbox", or "Get off your soapbox." Hyde Park, London is known for its Sunday soapbox orators, who have assembled at Speakers' Corner since 1872 to discuss religion, politics and other topics. A modern form of the soapbox is a blog: a website on which a user publishes one's thoughts to whoever reads them.