Don’t Tread on History
The Gadsdsen Flag is a piece of American history. Named for its designer, Christopher Gadsden, an American general and statesman, the flag features a coiled timber rattlesnake on a yellow field with the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” The origin of the rattlesnake as a symbol of the colonies started with Benjamin Franklin’s famous political cartoon of a snake cut into eight sections with the motto “Join or Die,” the first known pictorial representation of colonial unification. The cartoon appeared in his publication, The Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1754, and referred to the necessity of the colonists to join together with the British against the opposition in the French and Indian War. 
As frustration grew with the British policies leading up to the revolutionary war, the snake took on a new meaning. For instance, Paul Revere placed a modified version of the symbol in the masthead of the Thomas’s Boston Journal newspaper on July 7, 1774. In this version, the snake, representing the American Colonies, is facing off against Britain in the form of a dragon. This was an attempt to inspire the colonists to unite together to resist Britain. It worked! Many colonists adorned uniform buttons with the serpent, specifically a timber rattler. Additionally, some colonial leaders had money printed with the emblem. 
The serpent’s popularity led Gadsden to design a flag bearing the emblem for the marines of the Continental forces. Commodore Esek Hopkins received the original flag from Gadsen to be used as the distinctive personal standard of his flagship, the USS Alfred, before his first mission, the Battle of Nassau. In this bloodless battle, Hopkins captured Fort Montague. Later, Gadsen presented a copy of the flag to the Congress of South Carolina in 1776. It is still used today as a sign of patriotism such as—on the US Army’s Drill Sergeant Identification Badge and in a new iteration as the “Snake and Stripes” flag that’s flown on Navy vessels as a symbol of anti-terrorism— to name a few examples.
