[ExI] Words don't mean what they used to mean.

[BillK]

The Constitution was written about 250 years ago by US colonists
rebelling from the rule of UK King George.
I thought I understood what Thomas Jefferson meant by -
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness".
But I was mistaken. That's why Amendments had to be added in later years.

At that time, 1776, slavery was permitted, women had very few rights
and Native Americans almost no rights at all.
So it seems that Jefferson wasn't talking about individual liberty or
equal rights for all.
Rather, what the Founders declared was that American colonists, as a people,
had the same rights to self-government as other nations.
The modern idea of individual rights came much later in civilisation.

See this article by Stanford historian Jack Rakove for more explanation.
<https://news.stanford.edu/press-releases/2020/07/01/meaning-declaratnce-changed-time/>

Rather a big change in meaning!

BillK