In a recent post on another site, I pointed out that Betsy Ross did not sew the first American flag. Some members were offended that I challenged a popular story. That story is that George Washington, Robert Morris, and Col. George Ross (a relative of hers) came to see Ross, who was a well-known seamstress in Philadelphia. Washington explained what they wanted and mentioned six pointed stars. Betsy suggested five-pointed instead and cut one out with fabric. The Congressmen agreed and she got the commission. A nice little story that added a founding mother to the pantheon of revolutionary heroes. But is it true?
No one (outside her family) heard the story until 1870 when her grandson William Canby gave a speech to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He claimed he had heard the story from his aunt twenty years after his grandmother’s death. He presented affidavits from other family members to corroborate his story. By the way, he did not claim his grandmother designed the flag. She suggested the five-point stars, but the alternating stripes was not her idea. In 1873, Harper’s Weekly introduced the story to the nation’s readers. The story was perfectly timed to tap into “the cult of the flag” following the Civil War. Soon, schoolchildren were being taught the story. And unfortunately, many still are. Instead of qualifying the story as apocryphal (which basically means that a story is too good to be true), it was and is taught as fact. Historians require evidence for a story to be history. In a particular, historians who specialize in the history of flags. They are called vexillogists. The Ross story has no evidence other than what the Ross family remembered. It does have some inferences in its favor. Ross was a well-known seamstress and attended the same church as Washington and 15 signers of the Declaration of Independence. We know that she sewed some flags for the Pennsylvania navy. But that does not prove she sewed the first American flag. Oh, and Washington was not in Congress at the time of the story so he would not have been part of a “flag committee”. So, who deserves the credit?
The strongest contender is Francis Hopkinson (see below). Hopkinson was a member of Congress and a signer of the Declaration. He had some artistic ability and helped design the Treasury seal and the Great Seal of the United States, so he would have been a logical choice to design a flag. There is evidence in his favor. On June 14, 1777, Congress adopted the flag. In 1780, he submitted a payment request for designing the flag. Congress denied it, stating “he was not the only one consulted”. Note that Congress did not deny he had helped. Most historians accept his claim as stronger than Ross’.
If you want to give a woman credit for the flag, may I suggest Mary Pickersgill? She was a Philadelphia upholsterer who sewed the flag that flew over Ft. McHenry when Francis Scott Key was inspired to write “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Sept. 15, 1814. Unlike Ross, she has documentary evidence of her work.
Recently this country has gone through a period where Civil War “facts” have been questioned. Some have fought this “historical revisionism”, believing that if it was in their school textbooks, it is sacrosanct and should not be rewritten. But history is subject to new information and should be revised to make it more truthful. (In my 39 years of teaching, it was painful to remove fun anecdotes because I subsequently learned they were apocryphal or just made up.) The Ross story is a perfect example of this. Not that we have new evidence. Historians have known for decades that the story was apocryphal, but Americans love a good story and revisionism does not sell textbooks. I suggest that teachers still teach the story, but explain that historians need evidence and the story lacks it. And define “apocryphal”. Hopefully they already know this word from the John Smith and Pocahontas story.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/betsy-ross-likely-didnt-sew-the-first-us-flag
https://www.history.com/news/did-betsy-ross-really-make-the-first-american-flag
https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/betsy-ross-flag.htm
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