Why is it colonists could not understand what freedom means?

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I am continuously mystified by the American colonists who were so passionate about freeing themselves from the British, on the principle being under British rule was like being held in bondage, yet they didn't seem to understand same concept applies to all methods of owning people, as in slavery, and indentured servitude. It denies people their basic freedom and rights, same thing they were fighting the British over. I am filled with both gratitude and contempt toward the colonists who fought in the revolution because their inability and willingness to abolish that great evil slavery. To me, slavery is the most vile concept in mankind, depriving everyone the merits of enterprise thus making people weak and annoying, always wanting someone else to do their work while denying adequate compensation and destroying families.

I think you're right, Ana.

You presume that to choose one is to choose everything.

All societies need rules. When they came over, they didn't just toss out the rulebook and start over. They retained the rules that seemed sensible to them at the time. Considering that slavery works by designating the slave as no more than a work animal, it's pretty easy to see why they didn't see a problem with continuing the custom.

Most sociological changes occur over long periods of time.

You're not the first to ask that question.

The most astute observers of America (both homegrown, and foriegn) have often asked the same question.

During the descent into the Revolutionary War itself the British author/linguist Samuel Johnson responded to the news of discontent coming from the Colonists across the water with the question "how is it that the loudest yelps for liberty always come from drivers of Negroes?"

And more than two centuries later the late comic George Carlin would describe America as "a nation founded by slave owners...who wanted to be free". That pretty much gets to the nub of it.

What can I say? Go figure.

To try and get inside the mind of an American colonist is speculative at best. We only KNOW from experience what life in the 21st and late 20th century are like. I like to tell people that a few hundred years from now we probably won't measure up to the standards of that future time. We don't know what the standards of that time will be.

I really hate that, a cruel world where the strong tears off the weak, the strong always makes use of the weak for own benefits or satisfication. If people started thinking about others maybe then those things will stop, but at the same time I see that humans do want peace but they also crave conflict.

It seemingly is Human Nature to exploit anything and anyone if the opportunity arises unless one make a concerted effort to rise above the urge.
Humanity seems unable to rise above it's instinctual need for hierarchy. We're just another animal.
Or someting like that

First, you need to understand that the whole 'american revolution was about freedom' and 'the us civil war was to free the slaves' thing is nothing but propaganda. Its all a lie.

MONEY is why both happened.

The colonies revolted because they were being taxed too much. Worse even, they were being treated as 2nd class citizens since they had no representative to speak for them in the Brit parliament (which meant the crown could tax them at will without opposition).

Hence, it was MONEY that caused it. Not really the common man's money but the wealthy elite's money that was getting hurt and that fueled the propaganda and mob-rabble-rousing efforts upon the common people that eventually turned into a war of independence.

The civil war? about slavery? freedom for the black people? Pure bullcrap. The southern states broke away from the union peacefully at first. The north was the side that incited hostilities by not evacuating union army units from the southern states until the south basically had to start shooting at them to run them off...after months of constant diplomatic efforts from the south and the north constantly refusing to remove them.

The war was sold to the northern public and that to the south that it was all about 'the slaves' but that was a lie. Lincoln got elected despite not even being on the ballot on most of the southern states and the northern states were pushing to block the south's use of slaves and slave-made products on the western expansion because they wanted northern state goods and laborers who received that economic benefit. It was once again a mix of hurting the finances of the wealthy elite and doing so in an environment where they had no apparent voice or power in government.

So no, the Colonists did not understand what 'freedom' meant. It was a neatly packaged lie carefully tailored for the lower classes to get behind a cause they would pick a musket and go into a field to get shot. All the while the moneyed people watched from afar of course. There's little doubt that if the south had marketed slavery to the north..particularly in how it would make the wealthy there wealthier... that the north would have embraced it as well.

Could it be this?
I want my freedom. I don't give a rats about yours.

Are they ordinary citizen that wish to colonize today? Maybe a few. Maybe some in power.

I too share contempt for historical inaccuracy. Like for instance the British being blamed for there entirety of slavery and the majority of colonialism. Forgetting all the other examples throughout history, and then treating all other countries as if they have moved on and the British are somehow stuck in the past. I dislike this rhetoric not becuase the history isn't terrible, but becuase the rhetoric is also used to excuse a magnitude of bad behaviour and evil today, under the pretension it is re-addressing colonialism. You only have to look a Robert Mugabe as a good example. It can also simply a failure to take responsibility for thing happening today.

But yes, we were one of the worst transporter and traders that is true. USA was one of the worst "breeders" of slavery, and the revenue they got from it certainly rival the British. They were also one of the last to abolish it.

USA only really achieved universal suffrage in the 60s, pretty late for a country supposedly to do with freedom. I don't bang on about it unless the person is spouting rhetoric.