Join Or Die French And Indian War

Woodcut entitled Join or Die. Join, or Die is a well-known political cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania... more

by Photo Researchers

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Join Or Die French And Indian War

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Photo Researchers

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Photograph

Description

Woodcut entitled Join or Die. Join, or Die is a well-known political cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. The woodcut shows a snake severed into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of a British American colony or region. The position of each colony in the snake corresponds to the geographic position of the colonies along the American coast, with the snake's tail pointing south and the head pointing north. The colonies, from tail to head (south to north), are South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England (New England refers to the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire). Delaware and Georgia were omitted completely. The cartoon appeared along Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. The French and Indian War was fought by Great Britain and France over disputed territories in North America from 1754 to 1763. Struggles for supremacy had been going on for many decades between France and England in the New World, but hostilities intensified in the early 1750s as both English and French settlers attempted to colonize land in the Ohio River Valley and each thought they owned the rights to the land. Both France and England wanted to extend their "world empires" into the Ohio River Valley and each recruited Native American tribes to fight on their side.

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March 6th, 2013