Archive - Jul 4, 2017

1. Grand Union Flag, 1775
(quote)
When, on 1 January 1776, Washington’s Continental Army was mustered formally on Prospect Hill (Mount Pisgah) in Somerville, Massachusetts, it was under this flag favoured by the American general during the previous year’s Siege of Boston. John Paul Jones, the first well-known American admiral raised the Grand Union Flag at sea in December 1775. The Grand Union Flag was an adaptation of the British Red Ensign, with six white stripes overlain on the red backdrop to create thirteen alternating red-and-white stripes symbolising the first states of the American union.

2. Liberty Tree flag, 1775
The lofty white pines of New England were much prized by the Royal Navy for the construction of its grandest warships. Dating from the Massachusetts Charter of 1691, prize specimens were marked with a broad arrow symbol denoting property of the Crown and shipped to England. This form of compulsory purchase led to the Pine Tree Riot of 1772, a precursor to the famous Boston Tea Party of 1774 and war with Great Britain a year later.

Flown from the masts of American warships, the Pine Tree flag was a powerful symbolic riposte to the Crown and its Royal Navy. A lone pine was shown on a white background with the inscription "An Appeal to Heaven" ("An Appeal to God" was a less common alternative). These words were taken from the British philosopher John Locke’s Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690), which refuted the notion of the Divine Right of Kings.

3. The Betsy Ross, 1776 (or not)  read more »