Join, or Die

Join, or Die. is a <a href="/facts/Political_cartoon/1hjDjQFU">political cartoon</a> showing the disunity in the American colonies, originally in the context of the <a href="/facts/French_and_Indian_War/K44TukVy">French and Indian War</a> in 1754. Attributed to <a href="/facts/Benjamin_Franklin/Dmfv5URr">Benjamin Franklin</a>, the original publication by <a href="/facts/The_Pennsylvania_Gazette/dMdTwk2D">The Pennsylvania Gazette</a> on May 9, 1754, is the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by an American colonist in <a href="/facts/Thirteen_Colonies/H50dauTJ">Colonial America</a>. It was based on a superstition that if a snake was cut in pieces and the pieces were put together before sunset, the snake would return to life.
The cartoon is a <a href="/facts/Woodcut/fg45gSl6">woodcut</a> showing a <a href="/facts/Snake/YhA2gcn0">snake</a> cut into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of one of the <a href="/facts/Thirteen_Colonies/H50dauTJ">American colonies</a> or regions. <a href="/facts/New_England_Colonies/L4Jc4733">New England</a> was represented as one segment, rather than the four colonies it was at that time. <a href="/facts/Delaware_Colony/PW7B0bBm">Delaware</a> was not listed separately as it was part of <a href="/facts/Province_of_Pennsylvania/5d7o3Qew">Pennsylvania</a>. <a href="/facts/Province_of_Georgia/tkaaLtAW">Georgia</a>, however, was omitted completely. As a result, it has eight segments of a snake rather than the traditional 13 colonies. The poster focused solely on the colonies that claimed shared identities as <a href="/facts/Americans/srd9GJ5U">Americans</a>. The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. It later became a symbol of colonial freedom during the <a href="/facts/American_Revolutionary_War/8MxJNtcU">American Revolutionary War</a>.

Join, or Die open-in-new

Join, or Die