One of the more popular and enduring flags from the Revolutionary War era is known as the Gadsen flag. It’s so distinctive, you can’t miss it. A brilliant yellow field from corner to corner with the image of a rattlesnake coiled up and ready to strike. Beneath that image are the words, “DON’T TREAD ON ME.”
The message is clear, right? It not only resonated with Americans who wanted independence from the British crown in the 18th Century, but it still resonates with Americans today when the federal government overreaches on everything from censorship and First Amendment infringements to taxation and climate change regulation.
Next to the American flag, and the various Trump flags that flew at the Trump rallies in 2024, there was no small number of Gadsden flags waving in the wind amongst the America First crowd.
So what’s the story behind the flag?
Even before the American revolution, the rattlesnake image resonated with the people. The snake is native to North America. Thanks to its lethal bite and the dramatic noise it makes when its about to strike, you could say the snake had a bit of a reputation as a bad**s.
In 1751, Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper published an article that spoke out against the British custom of sending its worst convicted criminals to America. Does this sound familiar?
The author of the article suggested that Americans return the favor by packing up and shipping "a cargo of rattlesnakes, which could be distributed in St. James Park, Spring Garden, and other places of pleasure, and particularly in the noblemen's gardens."
Three years later, the Gazette published the image of a chopped-up snake to illustrate the risks of disunity. Each segment of the divided snake was labeled with the name of a colony. Below it was the motto: “Join or Die.”
The snake theme caught on, and soon, other newspapers were jumping on the bandwagon.
By 1774, the popular image of the snake had evolved, so that now the snake had grown back together to become one, and the new motto was: "United Now Alive and Free Firm on this Basis Liberty Shall Stand and Thus Supported Ever Bless Our Land Till Time Becomes Eternity."
To be sure, this was long before Don Draper and America’s Madison Avenue “Mad Men” era, so you could say that 1774 slogan needed some work. It didn’t quite roll off the tongue.
Still, the power of the image of that snake captured the imagination of an increasingly frustrated American populace. They saw in that symbol qualities that they regarded as unique to America. A rattlesnake does not attack unless it is provoked. And the consequences can be deadly for anyone who may step on it.
Based on a heritage of daring explorers, pilgrims and adventurers, American culture in the 1700s had long embraced a sense of individualism, and a growing desire to be rid of the restrictive control of a government across the ocean. Americans wanted more autonomy and self-determination.
One member of the Continental Army, Col. Christopher Gadsden, found this sensibility, and the symbolism of the rattlesnake, captivating. Gadsden had led the Sons of Liberty since 1765 in South Carolina. Reports are that he had seen a vivid yellow flag that featured a coiled rattlesnake, with those words, “Don’t Treat On Me.” This resonated with him, and so he made a copy of it, and he submitted the design to South Carolina’s Provincial Congress. Eventually, the army promoted Gadsden to Brigadier General.
Commodore Esek Hopkins of the Continental Navy unfurls a new flag on his flagship, USS Alfred.
— 1776 Live (@250YearsAgoLive) December 20, 2025
He calls it “the Gadsden banner,” after Christopher Gadsden, South Carolina delegate to to Continental Congress.
The flag depicts a rattlesnake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me.” pic.twitter.com/lSFjmURr7q
In 1775, a Pennsylvania regiment in the Continental Army first used it. In 1776, Esek Hopkins, commander of the new Continental fleet, carried a similar flag when his ships took sail for the first time. Hopkins sailed the Bahamas and captured British artillery and supplies. The American Navy was born, and with it, the first landing of a Corps of Marines. The drums the Marines used to provide cadence into battle featured the Gadsden symbol, painted on their sides.
Today that flag first used in 1775 is preserved and displayed at Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is considered the only surviving rattlesnake flag from the Revolutionary War.
