SAM I am...............................Sam I am.........green eggs and ham...........Sam Bruckner................

It was used by the Continental Marines as an early motto flag, along with the Moultrie flag.
Modern uses of the Gadsden flag include political movements such as libertarianism and the American Tea Party as well as American soccer supporter groups, including Sam's Army and the American Outlaws since the late 1980s.

Contents

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Snake symbolism
  • 1.2 Gadsden's flag
  • 1.3 Variations in appearance
• 2 Other rattlesnake flags
• 3 Modern use
  • 3.1 License plates
  • 3.2 Tea Party movement symbol
• 4 In popular culture
• 5 References
• 6 External links

History[edit]

Snake symbolism[edit]

The timber rattlesnake can be found in the area of the original Thirteen Colonies. Its use as a symbol of the American colonies can be traced back to the publications of Benjamin Franklin. In 1751, he made the first reference to the rattlesnake in a satirical commentary published in his Pennsylvania Gazette. It had been the policy of Great Britain to send convicted criminals to the Americas, so Franklin suggested that they thank the British by sending rattlesnakes to England.^[1]

Benjamin Franklin's "Join, or Die" cartoon

In 1754, during the French and Indian War, Franklin published his famous woodcut of a snake cut into eight sections. It represented the colonies, with New England joined together as the head and South Carolina as the tail, following their order along the coast. Under the snake was the message "Join, or Die". This was the first political cartoon published in an American newspaper.
As the American colonies came to identify more with their own