Our European ancestors had never known "freedom", not the traditional American way of freedom. They had come from a social system of "class" and an economic system based mostly on servitude. Also, the church was the controlling force over the morality of the people, in conjunction with the laws of the governments of the nation. Once the common men and women of Europe came to America they adopted the freedom thinking ways of the native people. The natives believed that all were equal and important to the whole; their leaders only had power given to them by the consent of tribe. To do as you please, to leave as you please, that everyone had the right to own property and control their lives was mostly a native idea not our ancestors.

Why did so many common colonials risk their lives to move into the wilderness with the natives? They did it to be free and happy and separate from the controls of government and church. These ideas were imported to Europe, not the other way around.
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David Upton