“Some of the leaders of the colonies wanted what they were starting to call the United States to have a flag all its own, one that everyone could rally behind.” – Who Was Betsy Ross?
In the spring of 2019, NIKE hatched a plan to release the new Air Max 1 Quick Strike sneaker featuring the first American flag, the Betsy Ross edition, with 13 stripes and a ring of 13 stars. But the sneakers would meet their match when Colin Kaepernick, who by that time was in his 3rd year without an NFL team, protested the release as racist, claiming the flag represented an era during which slavery was still accepted. A political feud erupted when conservatives, understanding the real history of the Ross flag, demanded that the sneakers be sold.
In James Buckley Jr.’s 2014 book, “Who Was Betsy Ross”, Buckley tells the story of the woman who is believed to have sewn the first flag of the United States. Born Elizabeth Griscom in New Jersey in 1752, Betsy left school at the age of 12 to join her sisters in the art of sewing, a typical job for girls and women of that era. During her lifetime, Betsy would give birth to seven daughters, five of whom survived, while burying two of her three husbands, who died in wartime incidents. Nearly a hundred years later, her family would recount the day that George Washington and two others entered her shop and made her a legend. Suitable for children ages 8-12, this is the story of how Betsy Ross became the originator of America’s first flag.
In 1607, the first official British colony in the New World was formed in Jamestown, Virginia. By 1775, 13 colonies, with a population of 2.5 million, were spread along the eastern seaboard, each forming independently of the others, as a result of various circumstances and interests. Unable to vote on the myriad of taxes imposed by Great Britain, the colonists became increasingly restless. After the Boston Tea Party sent hundreds of chests of tea into the sea, representatives from the 13 colonies eventually made their way to Philadelphia at the first Continental Congress to plan their separation from Great Britain. When their letter to King George went unanswered, they had no choice but to claim their independence and hope for the best.
Betsy would eventually become an independent businesswoman running her own upholstery shops until the age of 75. While upholstery shops in the eighteenth century produced everything from home furnishings, including furniture, they also made flags. During the war, shops also supported the war efforts by making slings, blankets, clothing, tents, and more.
It was Betsy’s grandson, William Canby, whose speech to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1870, first made mention of Betsy’s role in the war. At the request of General George Washington, Betsy was asked to prepare a sample flag based on his parameters, 13 white stars on a blue background, situated in a circle, with 13 stripes of red and white. Since there have been no findings of archived evidence to support the Betsy Ross family’s claim, her role in the making of America’s first flag is simply lore passed down over generations.
When the first Flag Act passed in 1777, Betsy Ross’s flag became the official flag of the United States, even as the troops continued their quest for independence. But this version of the stars and stripes would last less than two decades when additional states began to be admitted to the union. In 1818, the stripes were forever limited to 13 in recognition of the original colonies, while the stars would reflect the growing number of states. There were, in fact, 26 revisions to the original flag, reflecting America’s growth over 183 years. The current version with 50 stars has endured since the last states of Alaska and Hawaii were added in 1959 and 1960.
Despite Colin Kaepernick’s ignorance of history, the first flag of the United States served as a symbol of the United Colonies against the increasing abuses of King George. As June 14, Flag Day, a national holiday since 1946 approaches for another year, we remember not only the battles won to liberate Americans from British hegemony, but the woman who made that remembrance possible.
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