Join or Die Flag

Join Or Die Flag

Courtesy of the Ben Franklin and the Albany Congress.

In 1754, Britain and France were struggling for control over portions of North America. In the face of a looming war (French and Indian War) that would play out, in part, on American soil, Franklin proposed a plan that would unite the colonial governments into a single federal council.

In his Albany Plan, Franklin held that the colonies, by acting with one united voice, could more effectively fend off threatened attacks by the French and their Native American allies.

Both the colonists and the British Crown rejected Franklin’s plan because it encroached on their respective powers, but the Albany Plan remains important as one of the first documented efforts to unite the colonies. Notice the abbreviations for the colonies on the disjointed Rattlesnake. The Rattlesnake goes on through American history in many other publications, editorials and flags such as the Gadsden Flag.