You’ve seen the snake. It’s on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and historical markers from Boston to Charleston. A rattlesnake chopped into eight neat pieces, looking less like a predator and more like a butcher’s side project. Underneath it, the bold, terrifying command: JOIN, or DIE.
Most people think of this as the ultimate "Middle Finger" to King George III. They imagine Ben Franklin sitting in a dimly lit room, quill in hand, sketching a revolutionary call to arms against British tyranny.
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Honestly? That’s not what happened. At all.
When Benjamin Franklin published that woodcut in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754, he wasn’t trying to start a revolution against England. He was actually trying to help England. He wanted the colonies to stop bickering so they could survive the French and Indian War. The "Die" in the slogan wasn't about a hangman’s noose for treason; it was about getting slaughtered by French frontier forces.
The shift from "Join" to the later ben franklin unite or die variations is a wild lesson in how political branding actually works.
The Myth of the Revolutionary Snake
Franklin was a pragmatist. He looked at the American colonies in the 1750s and saw a mess. You had New York fighting with Pennsylvania, Virginia doing its own thing, and everyone ignoring the looming threat of the French military in the Ohio River Valley.
He didn't just wake up and draw a snake. He was responding to a specific defeat—George Washington (then just a young major) had been forced to surrender a small British fort. Franklin realized that if the colonies didn't act as one unit, they were toast.
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The snake itself wasn’t a random choice. There was a weird old superstition back then. People actually believed that if you cut a snake in pieces, it could come back to life if you put the bits together before the sun went down. Franklin was basically using an 18th-century meme to make a point about survival.
Why the Snake Has Eight Parts (And Omissions)
If you look closely at the original woodcut, you’ll notice something strange. There aren't thirteen sections. There are eight.
- N.E. at the head represents New England (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island).
- N.Y., N.J., P., M., V., N.C., and S.C. follow down the body.
- Georgia? Totally missing. Franklin figured it was too far south and too weak to contribute much to the immediate fight.
- Delaware? It was technically part of Pennsylvania at the time, so it didn't get its own segment.
It was a map disguised as a monster.
When "Join" Became "Unite or Die"
Fast forward a decade. The French are gone, but the British are now the ones making life difficult with the Stamp Act of 1765. This is where the image becomes a bit of a zombie. It was dead for years, and then suddenly, colonial printers started digging it up.
But they changed the vibe.
In 1774, a printer named John Holt replaced the royal arms on the masthead of the New-York Journal with a new version of the snake. This one was more aggressive. It was also often paired with the phrase Unite or Die. The context had flipped 180 degrees. Instead of "Join the British Empire to stay alive," it became "Unite against the British Empire to stay free."
It’s one of the greatest rebrands in history. Franklin himself was actually a bit wary of how radical the image had become. He was a diplomat at heart and spent a lot of time in London trying to fix things before the shooting started. But the snake had its own life by then.
The Rattlesnake’s Evolution
Why a snake? Why not a lion or an eagle?
In 1751, Franklin had written a snarky piece in his newspaper suggesting that the colonists should send rattlesnakes to England. Why? Because the British were sending their convicted criminals to the colonies. Franklin called it a "fair trade."
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By the time the Revolution was in full swing, the rattlesnake was the unofficial mascot of America. Unlike the British Lion—which attacks for territory—the rattlesnake was seen as a creature that minds its own business but is deadly if you step on it. It’s the direct ancestor of the Gadsden flag ("Don't Tread on Me").
Not Everyone Loved the Snake
We think of it as a universal symbol of patriotism now, but back then, it was polarizing.
- Loyalists saw the snake as a symbol of deceit. They pointed to the Bible—the serpent in the Garden of Eden—and argued that the "patriots" were literal agents of the devil.
- Pacifists thought the "Die" part was too violent.
- The British laughed at it. At first. Then they realized the "disunited" colonies were actually starting to listen to the message.
How to Use the "Unite or Die" Spirit Today
We aren't fighting the French in the Ohio Valley anymore, and we aren't (usually) worried about the Stamp Act. But the logic behind the ben franklin unite or die philosophy is actually pretty useful for modern life, especially if you’re trying to get a team or a community to do something difficult.
Focus on the Common Threat
Franklin didn't try to convince the colonies to love each other. He knew they didn't. He focused on the fact that they would all lose their land if they didn't cooperate. If you’re leading a project, don't focus on "team building" fluff. Focus on the one big problem that hurts everyone if it isn't solved.
Visual Messaging Matters
Franklin knew a long essay wouldn't work. He needed something people could understand in two seconds. That’s why the woodcut worked. If you want people to move, give them a symbol, not a manual.
The "Before Sunset" Rule
The superstition about the snake rejoining before sunset is a great metaphor for urgency. In any crisis, there is a window of time where you can fix things. Once the sun goes down, the pieces are just dead meat.
Your Next Steps
If you're fascinated by how this one image shaped a nation, you don't have to just look at it on a computer screen.
- Visit the Original: The Library of Congress and some specialized museums (like the Museum of the American Revolution in Philly) often have original prints or mastheads from the 1770s.
- Check the Mastheads: Look up digital archives of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Reading the actual editorial Franklin wrote next to the snake is wild—it’s much more intense than people realize.
- Analyze Your Own "Snakes": Look at the groups you belong to. Are you fragmented into eight pieces? Find the "head" of the snake (the goal) and figure out how to pull the segments together before the proverbial sunset.
The snake wasn't meant to be a pretty picture. It was a threat. And sometimes, a little bit of a threat is exactly what people need to finally start working together.