"History of the American Flag & American Flag Facts" Topic

""Old Glory, Stars and Stripes, the Star Spangled Banner" – From its inception, the American flag has been an important part of our nation's history. Surviving over 200 years, the flag has both physically and symbolically grown and developed in times of both achievement and crisis.

The American flag is a symbol known worldwide. It has been the inspiration for holidays, songs, poems, books, artwork and so much more. The flag has been used to display our nationalism, as well as our rebellion, and everything else in between. The flag is so important that its history tells the story of America itself.

It represents the freedom, dignity, and true meaning of being an American. It has been with us through our war times, our sad times, but also in times of our greatest joys and triumphs. The flag went through many variations before becoming the flag we all know and love…"
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Amicalement
Armand

As an Australian kid in an American classroom circa 1983 I always liked the pledge of allegiance. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.." bad ass. I wish Australian kids had that level of patriotism. I love it, I went to school with black kids, asians, whites but above all they were treated as AMERICANS first. That is praise worthy and one subtle reason why America is still number 1.

That's what it was like in my classroom for 20 years. We said the pledge every morning in homeroom, the students all stood and repeated the pledge.

And if a student didn't want to say the pledge, and I never asked, they stood up respectfully anyways.

One of the tasks of a teacher in elementary, middle, and high school is not only to teach the prescribed curriculum, but to produce good citizens.

YOU FASCISTS!

No, that doesn't actually work, since the Fascists were Italian nationalists.

YOU, YOU, PATRIOTS!!

I'm sorry but for anyone with an interest in American flag history there are better sources out there.

"The Son's of Liberty were the original "Tea Party" members; These are the guys that threw the chests of tea overboard into the Boston Harbour."

No, actually they were a mob paid for by John Hancock, the largest smuggler of tea in Boston. When the East India company dumped their tea on the American market to fight off bankruptcy, Hancock could not compete with their prices, so he paid a group of men to dump the tea overboard, thus getting rid of his competition. The fact that it has been spun around a patriotic movement is somewhat of an afterthought, though the action served dual purposes.

"The Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia when a somewhat obscure militia Colonel from Virginia came forward in his uniform and volunteered to take command of the troops outside of Boston overlooking Boston Heights. That Colonel was George Washington."

There was nothing obscure about George Washington. He was perhaps one of the most famous men in the colonies by 1775. As one historian noted, Washington may not have known who Voltaire was, but Voltaire knew who George Washington was. His exploits in the previous war were well publicized through the colonies and Europe. Further, he was selected by the Continental Congress to take over the army, based on his extensive previous military experience, sterling reputation, and military bearing. At least they got the reference to his militia uniform right (and not his VA Regimentals from the previous war)

"When he left Philadelphia, he took with him two flags. The Grand Union or The Continental as it was called was the first flag under which continental soldiers fought."

Wow, there's a whopper. He left with two flags? Where is that from? There was no consistent flag, or flags, that the Americans fought under during the war. That fact is well documented, and a bane for AWI gamers everywhere. If this is the history being presented by a university, I shudder at the thoughts and consequences. Gonna leave off reading any further. :-)

It wasn't just John Hancock or even Boston. The opposition to the landing of BEIC tea in the North American colonies was fairly widespread. Bostonians just went farther in their opposition. The Sons of Liberty predated the tea crisis and had started to spread beyond Boston before the Boston Tea Party.

So what is your take on the book American Tempest HG?

The Boston radicals led by Sam Adams and increasingly by Dr. Joseph Warren drew on Hancock's funds, but the idea that he was behind the TP is nonsense. Hancock was a lightweight, not even part of the core group.

There was fear among the Boston merchants that the East India Company was threatening their market, but Hancock was not even the key member of that interest group, but a rather a young enthusiast who made a good figurehead.

Hancock was on the leading smugglers of tea from the Dutch islands. He was not happy about being undercut on price. There were other smugglers of such tea in other parts of the colonies. I believe Arnold was also a known smuggler too.

The EIC dumped their tea in North America as the company was going broke and their price undercut the market. Like many wars, this one had a start in money.

Look at the shenanigans that Congress later pulled on insuring their personal shipments on government contracted commerce ships. Follow the money.

We have no idea who those guys were dressed up as Indians, whether they were SoL, or just waterfront toughs hired to do a job – a job that scratched an itch for more than one group or person.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

If you read the primary documents of the radicals like Adams, they were willing to use the merchants' fear of John Company, but it was the constitutional issues ("no taxation without representation" that motivated them. This became obvious after the Intolerable Acts closed Boston harbor if it was primarily about money the merchants would have paid for the tea and gotten the harbor back open. The radicals prevented that.