The Story of Our Flag, Colonial and National / With Historical Sketch of the Quakeress Betsy Ross

by Addie Guthrie Weaver

THE RATTLESNAKE FLAG.

The device of a rattlesnake was popular among the colonists, and its origin as an American emblem is a curious feature in our national history.

It has been stated, that its use grew out of a humorous suggestion made by a writer in Franklin’s paper—the Pennsylvania Gazette—that, in return for the wrongs which England was forcing upon the colonists, a cargo of rattlesnakes should be sent to the mother country and “distributed in St. James’ Park, Spring Garden and other places of pleasure.”

Colonel Gadsden, one of the marine committee, presented to Congress, on the 8th of February, 1776, “an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander-in-chief of the American navy; being a yellow flag with a representation of a rattlesnake coiled for attack.”