Gadsden flag

Gadsden flag, historical flag used by Commodore Esek Hopkins, the United States’ first naval commander in chief, as his personal ensign during the American Revolution (1775–83). The flag features a coiled rattlesnake above the words “Don’t Tread on Me” on a yellow background.

The flag was one of several contemporary flags that included an image of a rattlesnake, which had become a popular symbol of unity among the American colonies. The rattlesnake symbol originated in the 1754 political cartoon “Join, or Die” published in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette. The cartoon, which depicted the colonies divided as segments of a cut-up snake, exhorted the colonists to unite in the face of the French and Indian War (1754–63). The symbol was later used to represent unity during the Revolutionary War. One observer, writing to the Pennsylvania Journal in December 1775, claimed that a drum of the newly created Marine Corps displayed a rattlesnake alongside the motto “Don’t tread on me!”

That same month, Esek Hopkins was appointed commodore of the Continental Congress’s naval forces, and his ship, USS Alfred, hoisted a flag that combined the rattlesnake and the “Don’t Tread on Me” motto. The “elegant standard” was presented in February 1776 to the Provincial Congress of South Carolina by Christopher Gadsden, a delegate to the Continental Congress who was that same month placed in command of South Carolina’s military forces. The president of the Provincial Congress of South Carolina subsequently ordered the flag to be displayed in its hall. The design received little mention, however, after the United States achieved independence and adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official national flag in 1777 (see flag of the United States of America).

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Gadsden flag resurfaced in popular culture. It took on libertarian undertones, but it was not initially attached to any particular ideology. Rather, it was used to represent a broad American ethos, including by Nike and Major League Soccer in 2006. But after the conservative Tea Party movement emerged in 2009, the flag became increasingly associated with the movement’s right-wing populism. With Tea Party rallies taking place during the presidency of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States, rhetoric at some rallies occasionally took on racial undertones; by association, the Gadsden flag was thereby tainted with racism in the eyes of some observers. In 2014 an African American mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over a coworker wearing a hat with the flag’s design. The EEOC determined in 2016 that the design, although not a racist symbol, is “sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages in some contexts,” and that the complaint against its use met the standard for investigation according to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.