As Moroni raised the Title of Liberty and swore his people to a covenant oath he declared, "Let us preserve our liberty as a remnant of Joseph" (Alma 46:24). According to Thomas Valleta, the appropriateness of this typology cannot be overstated. . . . Anciently, Joseph was a symbol of freedom and liberty. Midrashic commentators have considerable to say about the story of Joseph, and particularly his struggles with his brothers. One account has God telling the guilty brothers: "By your lives you sold Joseph into slavery, and therefore you will recite the tale of your own Egyptian bondage until the end of time" (Graves 253).
First time readers of the Book of Mormon are often suprised at the number of references to "freedom" and "liberty." Actually, "freedom" appears 26 times in Alma, all between chapters 43 and 63. There are only three other direct references in the entire Book of Mormon. The term "liberty" or its derivative appears thirty-three times in these same Alma chapters, more than the rest of the Book of Mormon put together. . . . Both "freedom" and "liberty" (Hebrew: deror and hopsi) have their Hebrew roots in emancipation from slavery. As is true of Joseph as an individual and Israel as a nation, freedom and liberty came about because of making and keeping covenants with God. . . . Moroni realized that freedom came from diligence and giving heed to the word of God, and not from Nephite cunning and military might. [Thomas R. Valletta, "The Captain and the Covenant," in The Book of Mormon: Alma, The Testimony of the Word, pp. 236-237]