Patriotic movie star Chris Pratt recently was photographed wearing a tee shirt that featured an American flag with a coiled snake on top of it. The words “Don’t tread on me” were emblazoned below.
As most members of the Tea Party know (heck, don’t most Americans know this?) the image is a derivative of the historical Gadsden flag. National Review’s Robert Verbruggen wrote about it back in 2010:
In America, it was immigrants from this region and their children who introduced versions of the rattlesnake/“Don’t Tread on Me” flag in 1775, the year the Revolutionary War began. It appeared simultaneously among militia units from Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Virginia. One famous early appearance of this imagery occurred when the Second Continental Congress sent a group of Marines to help the Navy intercept and capture some British supply ships. The Marines carried drums that were painted yellow, with the words “Don’t Tread on Me” and the rattlesnake image.
The same year, Christopher Gadsden — who represented South Carolina in the Continental Congress — chose Esek Hopkins to be commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy. Gadsden presented Hopkins with a personal standard: a yellow rattlesnake flag, with the words “Don’t Tread on Me.” He also presented the flag to his home state’s legislature in Charleston. Today, the rattlesnake flag’s yellow iteration (other colors were also used) is commonly known as the Gadsden flag.
The design soon became a universal symbol of the Revolution; everyone from Minuteman militias to the New Continental Fleet used it. However, Betsy Ross’s Stars and Stripes was adopted as the official American flag in 1777.
Left wing outlets accused the star of wearing a tee shirt that has ties to white supremacy – and that’s because members of the Tea Party used the image to represent them at the height of their popularity. But the image – a sign of rebellion – has also even been used by gay rights activists.
No one owns it, no one can co-opt it.
But don’t let a little thing like history get in the way of a good public shaming, right liberals?
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore on Flickr