Flag historians of Lemmy, does the use of stripes on a flag symbolize freedom or sovereignty?

It all started by me looking to the year each country was created. I landed on a wikipedia page with a list of countries by date of sovereignty (*not sure how that is defined) and learned Liberia was the oldest country in the world according to wikipedia. Thats also when I learned their flag closely resembles the american flag. The next wikipedia article explained that it was due to the country's founders being former American and Caribbean slaves. .So timeline of flag origins and countries sovereignty dont add up without further research.

During this rabbit hole adventure I also read that the idea credited to George Washington says the American flag was made using the stars from heaven, the red symbolizing the British motherland and white to seperate America from its founding origins.

Im sorry im not including sources cuz its not worth going thru my browser history to re-read each article to know which citation source applies to each point im referencing but I assure you if you start at The Liberian flag article and follow links for the country's origin and the links about their flag being apart of the stars and strips class of flags you'll find sources of everything in this post. I didnt leave wikipedia for any of the shit im posting about.

The paraphrased reference about George's take on the American flag, as far as I could find, seems like a one off from most origins of the American flag. Most of what I read about claims to the origin of design for the American flag say the stars were the colonies, the red was for bravery/sacrafice/courage/valor, white is pretty unanimously considered purity, and blue is the colour of the chief/justice/perseverance.

Even if you buy the meaning behind its colors, you have to see that theyre also qualities required for declaring freedom, right. So did the symbolism of stripes get used to represent freedom from something before the American flag or is it all just accepted propaganda by America and isnt actually any older than the past 200ish years?