Before the Bald Eagle became America’s national symbol, the rattlesnake represented the spirit of the American colonies. After all, it was a uniquely American and dangerous animal unfamiliar to most Europeans, and the design of its rattle lent itself perfectly to political symbolism. Benjamin Franklin used the snake in his famous “Join, or Die” political cartoon, and during the Revolutionary War, the image evolved into the iconic “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden Flag. Our American Stories regular contributor Ashley Hlebinsky shares the surprising backstory behind one of America’s most recognizable flags.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories.
Did you know that America’s first symbol was a rattlesnake?
Here to tell another of her great stories is frequent
contributor Ashley Lebinsky. Take it away, Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
In America, we have a lot of symbols, and there
are symbols that we inherit, and there are symbols that
in a way create us.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
And in the United States, actually.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Before the United States, you know, we had an eagle,
and before there was the eagle and the stars and
the stripes, and even before we had a country, there
was a rattlesnake. And at the center of that story
is founding Father Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was as a printer,
(01:00):
a philosopher, and really one of the most effective communicators
in American history. Now, the story of the Rattlesnake begins
as a satire in seventeen fifty one, so decades before
the Revolution. Franklin responded to British policy they were sending
convicted criminals to the American colonies. Writing with his characteristic
(01:24):
bite if you will.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
He suggested a trade.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
If Britain insisted on exporting its felons Americans, of course,
must return the favor. Franklin proposed sending rattlesnakes to England,
noting they would be a grateful return for the human
serpents sent us by our mother country. It was humor,
but it definitely carried a message. The rattlesnake, which was
(01:51):
native to America, was dangerous when provoked, and was already
becoming a metaphor that would definitely take form several decades later.
In seventeen fifty four, Franklin gave that metaphor a form.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
In the Pennsylvania Gazette.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
He published a stark image a snake cut into pieces,
and each section was labeled for colony.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Where are we now in the Library of Congress? Right now,
we’re in the James Madison Memorial Building. Okay, this is
the Pennsylvania Gazette from seventeen fifty four, Join or Die.
So this is the original Benjamin Franklin drawing of a
serpent cut in pieces. Yes, so this was the first
(02:41):
political cartoon published in America.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
And what you’ll see is all of these colonies are
represented in eight pieces. The colonies were divided and they
were facing the pressures of the coming French and Indian
War at this point, so they were incredibly vulnerable.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So Franklin’s message was a.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Direct one, and that was that unity was the only option.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
But the image also carried a deeper meaning.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
There was a belief at the time that a severed snake,
and this is a little wild, but a severed snake
could be revived if its pieces were reassembled quickly enough,
and Franklin did not have to explain that to the colonists.
Two decades later, as tensions with Britain reached a breaking point,
Franklin returned to this image and, writing in seventeen seventy
(03:31):
five under an alias which was an American guesser, he
laid out the reasoning behind the rattlesnake as a national symbol.
She never begins an attack, nor when once engaged, ever surrenders,
and that line basically captured the colonial argument perfectly. Americans,
(03:51):
Franklin suggested, were not aggressors. They were defensive, measured, but resolute,
and he continued on to say she is therefore an
emblem of magnanimity and true courage. This analysis by Franklin
moved from behavior to symbolism, symbolism that we still see
(04:11):
today He continued on, saying, having no eyelids, she may
be esteemed an emblem of vigilance.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
The colonies, like the snake, were watchful.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
They were aware of threats, aware of power, and increasingly
aware of themselves as being something distinct.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
And then in this piece came one.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Of his most powerful observations. He said, she never wounds
till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy,
and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And of course we.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Know that in many instances leading up to the revolution
the colonists did just that.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
The rattlesnake or the serpent was about the most feared animal.
I guess at the time that’s why it was a
symbol of.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, Europe didn’t have exotic, venomous snakes like in America,
and so it was feared.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So this wasn’t just natural history.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
It was political philosophy and rhetoric, and it was a
justification for resistance.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It basically was.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yet another warning to the British. Now, Franklin saved his
most striking metaphor for last. He said, tis curious and
amazing to observe how distinctly the rattles of this animal
are separated from each other, yet making sufficient sound to
alarm the boldest man living. Basically, he’s saying, the rattles
(05:37):
are nothing together, though they are unmistakable. And Franklin saw
this connection. In the colonies themselves. They had separate identities,
but when united, they produced something a lot more powerful,
something that Franklin felt was absolutely impossible to ignore. And
increasingly everyone else noticed that, and the rattles often appeared
(06:01):
in groups of thirteen. What began as satire and then
as a newspaper image quickly spread and the rattlesnake appeared
across the colonies.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
They put it on pretty much everything.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Flags, drums, they reprinted it in their newspapers and in
their political messaging, and its meaning was clear and consistent.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
It was unity amongst all of the different colonies.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
There was this idea of vigilance but also restraint, and
a part of that restraint was that the colonies had
this strength when they were provoked. And by the time
of the American Revolution, the image had evolved into a
coiled snake paired with the warning don’t tread on me.
And that’s the Gasden flag, which was created by Christopher
(06:46):
Gadsen in seventeen seventy five.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
The Gasden flag was created during the Revolutionary War. In
those days, the flag was a symbol of the nation
that was flown aboard ships. You had to fly a
flag or else you were a pirate. So when we
decided to revolt against the British, we commissioned ships to
go to sea to fight them. We had to have
(07:10):
a symbol.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Franklin’s Rattlesnake, obviously at this point, was more than a symbol.
It was a framework, a framework for the United States
of America, and it was a way to communicate complex
political ideas quickly and effectively, which was unity without uniformity,
which I think is probably one of the best ways
to conceptualize even modern United States. And he also felt
(07:34):
strongly in that strength without aggression, that warning before action
and resolve without surrender.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Rattlesnakes were these sort of defensive creatures by nature. There
was a certain appeal to that, this idea that we
are going to take the high ground, this defensive position,
but if you mess with us, then we will come
out fighting. And so that passed this sort of colonial frontier,
sort of rough around the edges characteristic that many of
(08:03):
these columnists saw themselves as possessing.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
The rattlesnake remains one of the earliest visual expressions of
American identity. I mean it predates the flag, it predates
our independence by several decades, and in many ways it
helped me both possible because it gave the colonies something
they did not yet fully have, a shared identity, a
(08:28):
shared understanding of themselves. So in the end, even though
it started as a joke, Franklin didn’t just draw a snake.
He essentially gave a fragmented people a way to see
themselves as one. And he did it with a warning
that was clear, measured, and unmistakable, just like the sound
of a rattle.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Engler, and a special thanks to
Ashley Lebinski. She’s the former co host of the Discovery
Chains Masters of Arms, and she’s the co founder of
the University of Wyoming College of Laws Firearms Research Center,
and she’s a regular contributor here on our American Stories.
And what a story she told. What began as a
(09:13):
satire became something so much bigger, a symbol of unity, restraint,
and vigilance was this rattlesnake, and of course it would
evolve into the Gatsten flag. It was more than a symbol,
actually said that, it was a framework, and the role
that Ben Franklin played in this was seminal. It gave
the United States to shared identity and a shared understanding
(09:37):
of ourselves. And a special thanks also to the contributors
which you heard from the Library of Congress. The story
of the Rattlesnake a symbol woven through America’s story. Here
on our American Stories.
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