American flag has long history

My friend Taz Katzman asked me a question about the American flag the other day that I could not immediately answer. “You know,” she said, “our first flag had 13 stars and stripes for the 13 colonies. How many stars and stripes did our second flag have?”

I know that Missouri was the 24th star, but as for exactly what came after those first 13, it’s been too long since grade school. Time for a little research, I thought, so I dug out my flag book.

The answer to her question was not a simple one, but the “Betsy Ross Flag” which she referred to was adopted by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. The second flag did not come about until 1795 with 15 stars and 15 stripes, because, two new states had joined the Union – Vermont and Kentucky.

After careful consideration though, the Congress, which was looking toward the future, saw that constant revisions to the flag would be required as new states entered the Union and they wanted to create a flag with some sort of permanence. Consequently, they decided with the next revision of the flag to simply maintain the 13 stripes representing the original 13 colonies and continue to add stars as states were admitted.

Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana and Mississippi were the next states to enter, boosting the number of stars to 20 in 1818. In fact, the 1800s saw a total of 30 states enter the Union, bringing the number of stars up to 45. The 20th century ushered in Oklahoma in 1908, New Mexico and Arizona in 1912, Alaska in 1959, and Hawaii in 1960, completing the present-day 50-star flag.

The birth of our nation actually occurred long before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the history of our flag goes back equally as far, so we’ve had many other flags prior to the famous Betsy Ross flag. A glimpse of what was yet to come began with the arrival of the English settlers in Plymouth and Jamestown.

Those first settlers flew a flag bearing the ancient symbol of England; it bore a red field with a white cannon in the upper corner bearing the red cross of St. George (England’s patron saint). The Puritans saw conflict in the Cross of St. George and quickly eliminated it from the flag’s design.

Many of the flags that followed during that time period were designed for battle. They were commonly known as “Liberty Flags,” such as the familiar writhing serpent, which called for all of the colonies to unite. You may remember the rattlesnake, a symbol of the Revolutionary War, which was accompanied by the motto; “Don’t Tread On Me.”

The first flag to use the 13 red and white stripes was the Grand Union flag with the British Union Jack in the upper cannon, which was raised in Cambridge, Mass., in January 1776.

But, the stripes were not always red and white either. Various colors were represented throughout the infancy of our nation. Some flags used yellow, green, and black and some flags carried only nine stripes and some had 12.

Our current American flag, though, has been called Old Glory, the Star Spangled Banner, the Stars and Stripes, the Red, White and Blue. Whatever it’s called, it represents the life blood of our nation. It has been our inspiration, our light, and our history.

It also holds the spirit of our future. It radiates pride, honor, valor, and represents our freedoms. The flag of the United States of America is our symbol of unity in an exceedingly diverse nation.

Reference: History of our Flag by Heather O’Dell.