Exploring the Join, or Die Cartoon | BRIdge to the Past: Art Across U.S. History

0:00 Hi there and welcome to Bridge to the Past art across US history. I’m your host, Mary Patterson, and I work at the Bill of Rights Institute. So the Bill of Rights Institute makes resources for history and government teachers and students like yourself. And in this series, we’re going to be looking at visuals and reading them. Yes, because you can read images.

0:20 Now, a visual can be a lot of different things. It could be a map or a painting, a photograph or a political cartoon, but it’s a visual. You’re meant to look at it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t any words, but it’s predominantly something that you are just taking in pictorially, because a visual is a window into the past and art is a primary source.

0:43 And primary sources are really the gold standard when it comes to thinking about the past and creating arguments and trying to come to conclusions. So just like approaching a historic document, there’s important things to keep in mind when you approach a historic image. And that’s what we’re going to be helping you out here with a bridge to the past. So let’s dive right in.

1:05 The first image that we’re going to be reading in this series is the granddaddy of American political cartoons, which is join or die. Now, the first thing you should do whenever you’re looking at a historic image is just look, just observe. So you’re just taking in what you see. So I see a really clear, short message here,

1:27 and I like to think of it as all caps, like I’m being shouted at. I can join something or I can die. So it’s a pretty stark choice. And I wonder what I need to join, or why will I die if I don’t join this? I’m also noticing a snake, and it kind of looks like a rattlesnake, but I’m not really sure what sort of snake it is.

1:48 But what really strikes me about this snake is that it is cut into pieces. Now, a snake, I’m terrified of snakes. Personally, I think they’re pretty scary, formidable creatures. And it’s interesting that this is a scary sort of creature, but because it’s cut into pieces, it’s not necessarily scary anymore.

2:08 But maybe if it were whole, it would be perhaps. And I’m also noticing some abbreviations above the snake. I don’t know what they mean yet, but they must mean something because the artist chose to put them there. So that’s all I’ve done so far. I’ve just taken a minute to think about what I see. The other thing you need to do, or the next thing you should do when

2:29 you’re looking at a historic document, is you should be starting to formulate I’m sorry, historic image is you should be formulating questions. So who made this? When did they make it? Who was supposed to see it? What was going on at the time? So all of these are really important questions that I need to consider and try to find the answers to if I’m going to accurately read this image.

2:53 So here are some basics. Usually when you encounter a historic image, you’re given some sort of source line. So here I have the title. Join or die. I have where it was published, the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. So the Pennsylvania Gazette, I’m assuming Gazette is a newspaper and it’s attributed to Benjamin Franklin,

3:13 which is the name that’s you hear a lot in American history. So right away I’m thinking it’s 1754. So we’re not actually a country yet. The United States is still colonies. And now these labels on the snake are starting to make a little bit more sense. So each of these labels is referring to a specific colony.

3:36 So, starting from the snake’s tail south Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, new York and New England. So interestingly, Franklin, or the artist, has lumped New England colonies together, which is kind of like the New England Patriots. It’s the same sort of idea. And Delaware is missing.

3:57 Delaware and Pennsylvania actually shared a governor at the time, and Georgia just totally got the shaft and is off the snake. But otherwise the British colonies are represented in this snake. And this happens to be a wood cut. So a wood cut is sort of like you take an actual wood block and carve into it and are making a sort of stamp. So it’s a very early way of making a print.

4:19 So this print appears in the newspaper. I’m assuming Benjamin Franklin created it. In 1754 we’re still British colonies. Now I need to start diving a little bit deeper and thinking more about historical context. So in 1754, trouble is brewing in the British colonies. So we are still officially Team Britain.

4:39 We’re not our own country yet. And Great Britain has a big rivalry with France. And it’s not just Britain and France in Europe. Britain and France have colonies really all over the globe. They have colonies within Europe, they have colonies within North America, like us, 13 colonies. They have colonies in Asia. But we’ll just focus on North America because we’re biased.

5:01 That’s where we live. That’s what we want to know more about. So there’s this rivalry in North America between these two great powers and it’s starting to play out along the North American frontier in 1754. Now, Native American allies are incredibly important in this time period. So if you remember, it was the New World when the British

5:22 and the Europeans came and settled here in North America, but wasn’t new to the Native Americans who had been here forever. So they’re really powerful. They live all across North America and they’re a force to be reckoned with. So they really play into this power dynamic relationship between Britain and France. And Britain has a really important alliance with the Iroquois Confederacy.

5:46 So the Iroquois Confederacy are Native American nations based in upstate New York. And in 1754, the Iroquois Confederacy wants to call it quits on having an alliance with Great Britain. And this is really scary news because they need them if they’re going to keep the French at bay. So Great Britain is going to call

6:07 a meeting of the British colonies in Albany in upstate New York to figure out how are we going to woo back these allies. Okay, so this is all happening in 1754. So all of these colonial delegates are going to be traveling to Albany to talk through this plan. So the Pennsylvania delegates include Benjamin Franklin.

6:30 Benjamin Franklin just so happens to be the publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette. And Benjamin Franklin, by being the publisher, he gets to decide what’s going to be in his newspaper. He prints an editorial and he prints this famous join or die image. Right? So we’ve got some important context we need to keep in mind when we’re looking at Join or Die, we also need to think about who would actually see this.

6:55 So I mentioned before, so this wood cut this image, join or die, appears in a newspaper. So if you’re getting a newspaper in 1754, you’re going to assume that you can read, you’re going to read Franklin’s editorial. But if you can’t read, or if you have a very low reading level, you could still probably look at this image and get the main points.

7:18 We need to come together for something or bad things are going to happen. Mainly we’ll die. Okay, so he’s sort of covered both of his bases. He has a longer editorial and he has this image and this cartoon of the snake. It’s almost like a meme, right? It’s pretty easy to understand. We’re separated all these delegations.

7:38 If we want to keep the French at bay, we really need to come together. So Benjamin Franklin really has an agenda. So whenever you’re looking at a primary source, whether it’s a text or whether it’s a document, you have to keep in mind, why was this created? What was the intent of the author, the artist, the creator?

7:59 Franklin wants people, he’s trying to convince his readership that we need to band together. We’d be stronger if we address this threat, this menace the French and their own Native American allies if we don’t band it together. And this cartoon goes viral in the 18th century sense of the word.

8:20 So other colonial newspapers outside of the Pennsylvania Gazette pick up this image and they’re reprinting it. So lots of people beyond Pennsylvania are going to see it. So it’s important to think about the audience. So it starts with just perhaps a local audience that’s in Pennsylvania, but the message is powerful enough and it’s easily transmitted through this image that a lot of people can access,

8:43 that it spreads and goes viral, quote, unquote. What effects did this join or die image have? Well again Franklin’s purpose in creating this, printing this woodcut join or die. And in running his editorial in the Pennsylvania Gazette, was to form some sort of colonial,

9:07 unifying governmental body to address this threat of the French and the French Native American allies raiding the British colonial frontier. But this Albany plan of union Franklin’s dream at this intercolonial entity doesn’t pan out. The colonial governments are suspicious. They don’t want to cede power to this nebulous

9:30 colonial body and the Great Britain because remember, we’re still part of the British Empire where British colonies, when they get wind of this scheme, they’re like, no way, guys. So the Albany planning union doesn’t happen. Additionally, remember the original reason for calling the Albany Congress was to get the Iroquois Confederacy back on the side of the British and the Iroquois people

9:52 withdraw without committing to the British cause. However, two years later, the Seven Years War, the French and Indian War actually starts. So tensions between the British and the French just keep rising and then there’s a full on war and Great Britain actually wins that war and that has huge consequences for the history of the colonies and also in the history of the globe.

10:12 So the map of North America changes dramatically. The French really lose a seed of a vast amount of territory to Great Britain and the British colonies as part of the winning British Empire are riding high. They’re feeling super patriotic, they’re happy. But this war with France was really expensive. So this is going to lay a lot

10:33 of the groundwork for trouble between the colonies and Great Britain. So things that are going to be start being introduced to have the colonies pay for their fair share of this war and that’s going to take us into, of course, the American Revolution. And during that time that lead up to the American Revolution, join or Die comes back with a vengeance.

10:56 A lot of people associate this cartoon with the American Revolution, but it actually predates that. But the message that we’re stronger together will be fearsome if we unite and we can address this threat for our very own livelihood or if we don’t, we’re going to die, it comes back with a different context. Now, instead of joining together to address the threat of the French,

11:18 we need to join together to fight against the tyranny of the British Crown. So that’s a lot of information from this one cartoon. I really hope that you learned something and if you did, be sure to like the video and come back for more episodes where we look at other important visuals in US history and this image, it endures, right?

11:40 We still see it today. And this message of banding together to be stronger, I think is one that really resonates. Just as a country, we’re stronger when we address crises and threats, whatever they may look like, if we work together and even in our own personal lives, if you’re in a crisis or you have a problem it’s just nice to have someone to know that someone has impact.

12:02 So until we meet again, take care.