Melted into a New Race of Men

“Join or Die” a 1754 cartoon bluntly states, showing a chopped-up snake, each piece representing a colony. Indeed, had those pieces been united enough to form a living snake, had the colonies been unified enough, the war would have been shorter and more decisive. But the way it was, only the intercession of the French saved it from going down in history books as just another “rebellion” of a colony against a mother country. This cartoon is from 1754, way before the revolution got underway, but already some thinkers were looking ahead and seeing the possible outcome of a clash between identity and unity. It’s essential to see identity as one of the keys that caused disunity and not the other way around, or rather the different opinions as to what that identity meant, and all this was brewing as early as the 1750’s.

No British loyalist or American colonist could deny that the culture and identity as a whole of the colonies was vastly different from their mother country. Yet for most it didn’t seem enough ground to separate from it. Only when taxation started to threaten their prospering trade, and personal well-being, did action slowly begin to take place, and even then it was mostly for the repeal of those oppressing acts and not for larger goals. Only then did colonists start to realize how different they were from Great Britain, and how the American identity had gradually differentiated to become separate, which led to thoughts of revolution and independence. But complete independence was a novel thought and was not supported by many, leading to great disunity among the colonists, and significantly altering the impact the revolution could have had. But out of the ashes of the revolution and the complicated aftermath that involved forming a new nation came a strong sense of accomplishment and pride in their identity, which would prove to be a firm foundation for centuries to come.