The disgraced Confederate history of the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag
Culture,1st Amendment,Free Speech,Schools,Slavery,Race And Racism
On April 18, 1861, six days after the opening shots of the Civil War, the Philadelphia Inquirer described a “great sensation” in Boston.
A “strange craft” had appeared in the harbor: a merchant vessel from Georgia that flew “a white flag, having on it the emblem of a rattlesnake, with the motto underneath ‘Don’t tread on Me!’ and also below this fifteen stars, representing the fifteen slave States.”
The ship came from Savannah, where secessionists had embraced multiple variations on Christopher Gadsden’s Colonial flag after the election of Abraham Lincoln, eager to promote their cause as a second American Revolution. Stories about Savannah’s political rallies and “Don’t Tread” flag had been reported in newspapers nationwide, so when a ship with a version of it appeared in Boston, a large and angry crowd assembled.
