Rattlesnake Flags (U.S.)

Historical

Last modified: 2004-12-22 by rick wyatt
Keywords: united states | gadsden | culpeper | rattlesnake | jack | sullivan's life guards |
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• Origin of the Rattlesnake
• Secessionist Rattlers
• Sullivan's Life Guards
• Other Rattlesnake flags
  
  
• Colonial Georgia flag
• Colonel John Proctor's 1st Battalion
• Culpeper
• First Navy Jack
• Gadsden
• Veteran Exempts
• South Carolina Navy

See also:

• U.S. Historical flags
• United States of America

Origin of the Rattlesnake

by Rick Wyatt, 5 April 1998
Ben Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette Sketch
9 May 1754

In 1751 Benjamin Franklin's paper carried an article recommending that a cargo of rattlesnakes be sent to England. Three years later, in 1754, Benjamin Franklin published a drawing of a snake cut into eight parts (Georgia was not included). This was to show the members of the Albany Congress the danger of disunity. By 1754 the segments of the snake had grown together, and the motto had been changed to read 'United Now Alive and Free Firm on this Basis Liberty Shall Stand and Thus Supported Ever Bless Our Land Till Time Becomes Eternity'.

The rattlesnake had become a favored symbol among pre-Revolutionary War colonists.

David S. Cohen
Dave Martucci
Rick Wyatt          22 December 1997