WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 The Deep Dive, Benjamin Franklin's Join or Die 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:07.679 and America's first viral meme. In this deep 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:10.039 dive, we explore the surprising history behind 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:13.519 Benjamin Franklin's iconic Join or Die political 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:17.000 cartoon. Originally published in 1754 during 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:19.500 the French and Indian War, this simple woodcut 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:22.399 of a severed snake transformed into the ultimate 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:25.339 symbol of American unity and the American Revolution. 00:00:25.550 --> 00:00:28.410 We unpack the original colonial superstition 00:00:28.410 --> 00:00:31.170 behind the image, its surprising French origins, 00:00:31.550 --> 00:00:33.590 and how Franklin actually lost control of his 00:00:33.590 --> 00:00:35.670 own messaging during the Stamp Act Congress. 00:00:36.530 --> 00:00:38.450 Whether you're a history buff fascinated by the 00:00:38.450 --> 00:00:40.909 13 colonies or just curious about how political 00:00:40.909 --> 00:00:43.909 propaganda evolves, join us as we decode the 00:00:43.909 --> 00:00:46.990 legacy of JOIN or die, from Paul Revere's printing 00:00:46.990 --> 00:00:49.630 press to modern -day pop culture. Welcome to 00:00:49.630 --> 00:00:51.890 the Deep Dive. Grab a seat, because today's journey 00:00:51.890 --> 00:00:54.490 is perfect for you if you love a really good 00:00:54.490 --> 00:00:56.350 aha moment. Oh, totally. We've got a great one 00:00:56.350 --> 00:00:59.109 today. Yeah. I want you to picture an 18th century 00:00:59.109 --> 00:01:01.750 colonial newspaper. Usually a pretty dry read. 00:01:01.909 --> 00:01:03.950 Exactly. You open it up. You're expecting the 00:01:03.950 --> 00:01:06.469 usual polite mercantile news, maybe some shipping 00:01:06.469 --> 00:01:09.329 schedules. Or those really dry reports from the 00:01:09.329 --> 00:01:11.890 local assembly. Right. But instead, right there 00:01:11.890 --> 00:01:17.090 on the page is the stark It's violently chopped 00:01:17.090 --> 00:01:20.269 into pieces, and hovering right beside it is 00:01:20.269 --> 00:01:23.810 this chilling, almost threatening ultimatum. 00:01:25.019 --> 00:01:27.599 It honestly sounds like the promotional poster 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:29.799 for a modern horror movie, doesn't it? It really 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:33.219 does. But it's actually the earliest known pictorial 00:01:33.219 --> 00:01:35.680 representation of colonial union by an American 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.659 colonist. Which is wild. And today our source 00:01:38.659 --> 00:01:41.519 is a comprehensive Wikipedia article on Benjamin 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:45.540 Franklin's 1754 political cartoon, Join or Die. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:47.780 That's right. And our mission for this deep dive 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:51.400 is to trace how this really simple doodle in 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:54.219 the Pennsylvania Gazette basically became a viral 00:01:54.219 --> 00:01:57.010 sensation. The first American meme, really. Exactly. 00:01:57.150 --> 00:01:59.189 We're going to see how it morphed through multiple 00:01:59.189 --> 00:02:01.390 wars and how it literally continues to be inked 00:02:01.390 --> 00:02:03.609 onto people's bodies centuries later. And if 00:02:03.609 --> 00:02:06.390 you can visualize an 18th century colonial printing 00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:08.849 press in your mind right now, that's where we 00:02:08.849 --> 00:02:11.629 need to be. Because to understand why this matters 00:02:11.629 --> 00:02:14.110 to you today, we have to look at the power of 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:17.090 visual propaganda. Oh, for sure. We need to see 00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:20.310 how a single image can completely shape public 00:02:20.310 --> 00:02:25.159 opinion. And ultimately, outgrow its creator's 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:27.379 original intent. Okay, let's unpack this, because 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:29.080 I was looking at the original woodcut in our 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:31.180 source material, and what strikes me right away 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:35.199 is the anatomy of this famous snake. It's not 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:37.379 what people think. No, it's entirely different. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:39.500 When you and I think the early United States, 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:43.340 we immediately default to the 13 colonies. Right, 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:46.319 the original 13. So, logically, you'd think this 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:48.840 chopped -up snake is cut into 13 pieces. But 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.610 it isn't. No. There are only eight segments. 00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:54.210 And that is a really crucial detail that often 00:02:54.210 --> 00:02:57.090 gets overlooked. Franklin wasn't trying to draw 00:02:57.090 --> 00:02:59.370 a comprehensive geographical map. He was making 00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:02.069 a very specific point. A highly targeted political 00:03:02.069 --> 00:03:04.189 statement, yeah. If you look closely at those 00:03:04.189 --> 00:03:07.050 eight segments, they're labeled with the initials 00:03:07.050 --> 00:03:10.530 of specific colonies or regions. But there are 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:12.629 some glaring omissions. Right, like for instance, 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:15.629 New England. It isn't broken down into Massachusetts, 00:03:15.789 --> 00:03:17.669 Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. 00:03:17.750 --> 00:03:20.080 No, they are all lumped together. Yeah. Into 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:22.340 one single segment right at the head of the snake. 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:25.039 Exactly. And Delaware doesn't get its own piece 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:26.919 either. Because it was tied to Pennsylvania. 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:29.659 Right administratively. So it's completely hidden 00:03:29.659 --> 00:03:31.919 inside the Pennsylvania segment. And then there's 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:34.580 Georgia. Completely ignored. Left out of the 00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:37.080 drawing entirely. Which is so interesting. It 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:40.300 is. Because at that specific moment in time, 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:43.099 Franklin was focusing solely on the colonies 00:03:43.099 --> 00:03:46.080 that shared a very specific strategic interest. 00:03:46.419 --> 00:03:49.840 An emerging American identity. Exactly. He was 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:52.240 only aiming his message at the people he actually 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.639 needed to persuade. Which brings up honestly 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:56.780 the weirdest part of this whole thing for me. 00:03:56.900 --> 00:04:00.039 The snake itself. Yeah. Why a severed snake? 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.680 I mean, was Franklin just trying to pick the 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:05.099 scariest, most intimidating animal he could think 00:04:05.099 --> 00:04:07.969 of to grab people's attention? Not quite. And 00:04:07.969 --> 00:04:10.189 this is where Franklin's absolute genius for 00:04:10.189 --> 00:04:12.610 mass communication shines. OK. He wasn't just 00:04:12.610 --> 00:04:15.030 trying to be edgy. He was tapping directly into 00:04:15.030 --> 00:04:19.370 this bizarre, widely believed folk superstition 00:04:19.370 --> 00:04:22.230 of the era. A superstition about snakes. Right. 00:04:22.870 --> 00:04:25.389 On the 18th century frontier, there was this 00:04:25.389 --> 00:04:28.089 prevailing myth that if a snake was cut into 00:04:28.089 --> 00:04:30.910 pieces, it wasn't necessarily dead for good. 00:04:31.209 --> 00:04:34.360 Wait, really? Yes. The folklore claimed that 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:36.759 if you managed to gather all those severed pieces 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:39.399 and put them back together before the sunset... 00:04:39.399 --> 00:04:41.920 No way. ...the snake would literally resurrect. 00:04:42.379 --> 00:04:44.620 It would come back to life. People actually believed 00:04:44.620 --> 00:04:46.779 a chopped up snake could magically fuse back 00:04:46.779 --> 00:04:50.819 together. Many did. Or, at the very least, they 00:04:50.819 --> 00:04:52.899 intimately understood the cultural reference. 00:04:53.379 --> 00:04:56.550 Wow. You have to remember... life on the colonial 00:04:56.550 --> 00:04:59.930 frontier was deeply intertwined with nature and 00:04:59.930 --> 00:05:02.290 local legends. So it was a metaphor everyone 00:05:02.290 --> 00:05:06.329 just got. Exactly. By using this specific superstition, 00:05:06.790 --> 00:05:09.110 Franklin bypassed all that high -minded political 00:05:09.110 --> 00:05:11.689 rhetoric. He spoke directly to the rural, everyday 00:05:11.689 --> 00:05:13.850 colonists in a visual language they instantly 00:05:13.850 --> 00:05:16.370 recognized. That is so smart. The message was 00:05:16.370 --> 00:05:19.529 clear. Right now, we are severed and dead. But 00:05:19.529 --> 00:05:21.189 if we put ourselves together before it's too 00:05:21.189 --> 00:05:23.410 late. Before the sun sets. We can become a powerful 00:05:23.410 --> 00:05:26.459 living force again. That is brilliant. But I 00:05:26.459 --> 00:05:28.839 think we need to clarify what that setting sun 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:32.459 actually represented in 1754. Because it's heavily 00:05:32.459 --> 00:05:35.800 misunderstood. It is. When I first saw join or 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:37.839 die, my brain immediately went to the American 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:40.160 Revolution. Naturally. I assumed it was a battle 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:44.000 cry against the British crown. But in 1754, the 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.500 revolution was still decades away. Decades. When 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:50.720 Franklin published this in May of 1754, it had 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:52.819 absolutely nothing to do with fighting the British. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.740 It was the exact opposite. Yes. The cartoon was 00:05:55.740 --> 00:05:57.540 published against the backdrop of the French 00:05:57.540 --> 00:06:00.220 and Indian War, which was the North American 00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:02.480 theater of the massive global conflict known 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:05.329 as the Seven Years War. Right, so in this fight, 00:06:05.509 --> 00:06:07.850 the British Empire, the 13 colonies, and their 00:06:07.850 --> 00:06:10.449 Native American allies were facing off against 00:06:10.449 --> 00:06:12.350 the French and their Native American allies. 00:06:12.589 --> 00:06:14.829 So the colonists weren't looking east across 00:06:14.829 --> 00:06:16.990 the Atlantic toward London. No, they were looking 00:06:16.990 --> 00:06:19.470 west toward the frontier. Because American colonists 00:06:19.470 --> 00:06:22.209 were deeply invested in gaining control of the 00:06:22.209 --> 00:06:24.490 lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. There 00:06:24.490 --> 00:06:27.149 was a lot of money to be made in land speculation. 00:06:27.430 --> 00:06:31.160 And a huge desire for new settlements. But the 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:33.180 colonies were completely fractured. And utterly 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:35.439 divided. They couldn't agree on whether to actually 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:38.680 risk a full scale war with the French to secure 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:41.740 that territory. And that fracture is the exact 00:06:41.740 --> 00:06:44.519 disunity the snake represents. Yes. You had different 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:47.459 colonial governments, different priorities, and 00:06:47.459 --> 00:06:50.439 a lot of reluctance to fund mutual defense. And 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:52.459 our source points out, through the writer Philip 00:06:52.459 --> 00:06:55.759 Davidson, that Franklin was this master propagandist. 00:06:56.009 --> 00:06:59.769 He really saw the profound potential of political 00:06:59.769 --> 00:07:03.529 cartoons to stir public opinion. He recognized 00:07:03.529 --> 00:07:07.350 a looming existential threat. If the French colonies 00:07:07.350 --> 00:07:09.930 weren't checked, they would permanently encircle 00:07:09.930 --> 00:07:12.230 and threaten the security of the British colonies. 00:07:12.430 --> 00:07:14.529 Which is why Franklin proposed the Albany Plan 00:07:14.529 --> 00:07:16.910 of Union. Right. And that was his attempt to 00:07:16.910 --> 00:07:19.170 create a unified colonial government just for 00:07:19.170 --> 00:07:21.589 mutual defense. Precisely. It was not about seeking 00:07:21.589 --> 00:07:24.110 independence. It was about administrative survival. 00:07:24.230 --> 00:07:26.089 He just wanted them to pool their resources. 00:07:26.529 --> 00:07:29.649 Form a unified council. Organize a coordinated 00:07:29.649 --> 00:07:33.540 military response. The cartoon was his visual 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:36.639 argument that this union was absolutely necessary 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:39.379 to avoid being picked off one by one by the French. 00:07:39.459 --> 00:07:41.740 And you can actually hear how exasperated Franklin 00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:43.980 was getting with his fellow colonists. Oh, his 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:46.139 writing from that time is so frustrating. Right. 00:07:46.459 --> 00:07:48.699 In the editorial that he printed right alongside 00:07:48.699 --> 00:07:51.720 the snake, he basically vents about the enemy's 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:54.360 advantage. He wrote that the French were highly 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:56.420 confident because the British colonies were in 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:59.339 a disunited state. He complained about the extreme 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:01.639 difficulty of getting so many different colonial 00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:04.879 governments to agree on any speedy defense. Well, 00:08:04.980 --> 00:08:07.019 the French had the massive advantage of being 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:10.040 under, as he put it, one direction with one council 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:12.519 in one purse. He is practically begging the colonies 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:14.459 to get it together before they were destroyed. 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:17.199 Yeah. What's fascinating here is that in trying 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.980 to make that desperate plea, Franklin might have 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:22.639 borrowed from a really surprising source. Oh. 00:08:22.970 --> 00:08:26.250 This quintessential American symbol might actually 00:08:26.250 --> 00:08:29.370 have French origins. Wait, really? The ultimate 00:08:29.370 --> 00:08:32.110 symbol of American unity came from France. It's 00:08:32.110 --> 00:08:34.789 highly probable. The source notes that Franklin 00:08:34.789 --> 00:08:37.190 may have been inspired by an engraving from a 00:08:37.190 --> 00:08:39.889 French emblem designer named Nicolas Varian. 00:08:40.289 --> 00:08:44.009 Nicolas Varian. Okay. Decades earlier, in 1685, 00:08:44.649 --> 00:08:46.970 Varian published a book meant for scientists 00:08:46.970 --> 00:08:50.320 and artists. And inside that book, is an engraving 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:53.039 of a snake cut in two. You're kidding. And the 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:55.960 legend beneath it reads, un serpent coupé en 00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:59.080 deux se rejoindre au mourir, which translates 00:08:59.080 --> 00:09:02.779 to, a snake cut in two, join or die. Exactly. 00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:05.720 That is almost verbatim. It is. And Varian snake 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:08.240 was part of a broader collection of Latin, Spanish 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:11.000 and Italian mottos, which suggests the imagery 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:13.159 of a severed snake needing to rejoin might have 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:15.639 even more ancient classical origins. That just 00:09:15.639 --> 00:09:17.840 goes to show that IDs rarely exist in a vacuum. 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:20.779 Never. The greatest communicators borrow, adapt, 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:23.759 and repurpose existing cultural symbols to fit 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:26.340 their immediate needs. So Franklin took a European 00:09:26.340 --> 00:09:28.539 emblem, crossed it with an American frontier 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:31.019 superstition, and created something entirely 00:09:31.019 --> 00:09:33.659 new. He did. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:36.480 though, because the story of how this image was 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:39.960 used doesn't stop in 1754. Not at all. Let's 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.399 fast forward a bit to the 1760s, specifically 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:46.799 around 1765 during the Stamp Act Congress. This 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:49.320 is a huge turning point. Right. The trajectory 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:52.100 of this cartoon takes a massive turn. The British 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:54.720 Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which was a 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:57.980 direct tax on all printed materials in the colonies. 00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:01.539 Legal documents, magazines, playing cards. And 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:04.500 crucially, newspapers. And if you want to understand 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:07.440 why this meme exploded, you have to look at who 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:10.299 that tax angered the most. The printers. The 00:10:10.299 --> 00:10:12.960 printers. By taxing paper, the British Crown 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:15.700 directly infuriated the exact people who controlled 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:17.730 the flow of information. They owned the printing 00:10:17.730 --> 00:10:20.490 presses. Right. So when the colonies decided 00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:22.750 to push back against the Stamp Act, the media 00:10:22.750 --> 00:10:24.990 was already primed and motivated to lead the 00:10:24.990 --> 00:10:27.450 charge. And that's when the join or die snake 00:10:27.450 --> 00:10:29.909 goes viral all over again. But the meaning is 00:10:29.909 --> 00:10:32.710 completely hijacked. Yes. American colonists 00:10:32.710 --> 00:10:35.590 pull out Franklin's old woodcut and reprint it 00:10:35.590 --> 00:10:38.110 in a publication called The Constitutional Current. 00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:40.509 But this time they aren't using it to persuade 00:10:40.509 --> 00:10:42.570 the colonies to unite with Great Britain against 00:10:42.570 --> 00:10:45.909 the French. No, they're using it to persuade 00:10:45.909 --> 00:10:48.330 the colonies to unite against the British crown. 00:10:48.450 --> 00:10:51.029 It is a stunning reversal of intent. The exact 00:10:51.029 --> 00:10:53.450 same image. But an entirely flipped political 00:10:53.450 --> 00:10:56.470 target. And this hijacking highlights a really 00:10:56.470 --> 00:10:59.090 important dynamic about how we interpret media. 00:10:59.750 --> 00:11:03.049 A symbol only means what the audience collectively 00:11:03.049 --> 00:11:05.669 decides it means. Right. If you look at the diverse 00:11:05.669 --> 00:11:08.450 viewpoints of the era, the image acted almost 00:11:08.450 --> 00:11:11.490 like a political inkblot test. How so? Well, 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:13.879 The Patriots, the ones protesting the Crown, 00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:17.259 looked at this snake and associated it with classical 00:11:17.259 --> 00:11:20.360 ideals. Okay. To them, the snake represented 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:23.980 eternity, vigilance, and prudence. It was a noble 00:11:23.980 --> 00:11:26.100 creature demanding unity for the survival of 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:28.679 liberty. But what about the other side? The Loyalists, 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:30.700 the colonists who supported the British government, 00:11:31.100 --> 00:11:33.340 looked at the exact same image and saw something 00:11:33.340 --> 00:11:35.600 completely sinister. They hated it. They viewed 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:37.519 it through the lens of biblical tradition, where 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:39.919 the serpent is the ultimate symbol of guile, 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:43.100 deceit, and treachery. Wow. Two opposing sides 00:11:43.100 --> 00:11:45.340 looking at the exact same arrangement of ink 00:11:45.340 --> 00:11:47.759 on paper seeing their own distinct realities. 00:11:48.200 --> 00:11:51.379 That inkblot test analogy is perfect. And the 00:11:51.379 --> 00:11:54.200 irony here is that Benjamin Franklin himself 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:56.700 was caught right in the middle of it. He was. 00:11:56.860 --> 00:12:00.779 He actually hated. this new radical use of his 00:12:00.779 --> 00:12:02.940 cartoon. You really did. During the protests 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:05.000 against the Stamp Act, Franklin was actually 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:07.679 over in London and he was advocating for a much 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:10.519 more moderate political policy. He believed in 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:12.879 diplomacy and reconciliation. He didn't want 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:15.740 radical uprising, but his own drawing was out 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:17.899 there fueling the fires of rebellion. Because 00:12:17.899 --> 00:12:20.720 of that initial cartoon, the British government 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:23.850 viewed the constitutional current as a highly 00:12:23.850 --> 00:12:26.490 treasonous publication. So Franklin is panicking. 00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:29.070 He was alarmed. He lost control over his own 00:12:29.070 --> 00:12:30.809 narrative, so he tried to put the genie back 00:12:30.809 --> 00:12:33.929 in the bottle. Right. In 1766, he designed and 00:12:33.929 --> 00:12:36.250 published a completely new counter -cartoon. 00:12:36.750 --> 00:12:40.350 Titled, Magangne Britannia, Her Colonies Reduced. 00:12:40.450 --> 00:12:41.889 And what did that one look like? Tell them about 00:12:41.889 --> 00:12:44.029 this one. He shifted away from the snake entirely. 00:12:44.330 --> 00:12:47.049 He drew a female figure representing Britannia, 00:12:47.169 --> 00:12:49.490 leaning against a globe, but with all of her 00:12:49.490 --> 00:12:52.289 limbs violently cut off. And the severed limbs 00:12:52.289 --> 00:12:54.850 were labeled with the names of the American colonies. 00:12:55.450 --> 00:12:57.830 So he was trying to pivot the visual metaphor. 00:12:57.950 --> 00:13:01.649 Yes, to warn Parliament. He was saying, if you 00:13:01.649 --> 00:13:04.470 keep pushing these harsh policies, you will literally 00:13:04.470 --> 00:13:08.600 dismember your own empire. He was urging caution 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:11.399 on both sides. But it didn't work, did it? No. 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:13.919 Because once a meme goes viral, you can't just 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:16.679 unpublish it. The colonial printers had essentially 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:19.200 open -sourced his original design. That's a great 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:21.480 way to put it. Yeah. The printing presses of 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:24.460 the 13 colonies functioned very much like early 00:13:24.460 --> 00:13:26.799 social media networks. Because there was no strict 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:29.659 copyright preventing it. Exactly. And because 00:13:29.659 --> 00:13:31.919 carving a woodblock was relatively straightforward 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:35.139 for a skilled printer, the image was easily reproduced. 00:13:35.259 --> 00:13:38.159 It was the 18th century equivalent of retweeting 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:40.740 and remixing. It really was. And it mutated as 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:43.320 it spread. Our sources show that shortly after 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:45.639 it resurfaced during the Stamp Act Congress, 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:49.139 variations popped up all over in New York, Massachusetts, 00:13:49.460 --> 00:13:51.580 Virginia, and South Carolina. And the text didn't 00:13:51.580 --> 00:13:54.120 even stay the same. Right. In places like New 00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:57.759 York and Pennsylvania, the phrase join or die 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:01.639 was altered to say unite or die. The spread was 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:04.509 just relentless. In New York and Pennsylvania, 00:14:05.110 --> 00:14:07.889 printers ran the cartoon continuously, week after 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:11.190 week, for over a year. It just became this ubiquitous 00:14:11.190 --> 00:14:14.549 part of the colonial visual landscape. Burned 00:14:14.549 --> 00:14:17.129 into the public consciousness. And as the actual 00:14:17.129 --> 00:14:19.750 Revolutionary War approached, it was adopted 00:14:19.750 --> 00:14:21.710 by some of the most famous figures in American 00:14:21.710 --> 00:14:25.750 history. Like Paul Revere. Yes. In July of 1774, 00:14:26.250 --> 00:14:28.909 Paul Revere, who was a highly skilled engraver 00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:31.149 in addition to his midnight writing. Right, obviously. 00:14:31.330 --> 00:14:34.120 He took the cartoon and altered it to fit the 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:36.360 masthead of his newspaper, The Massachusetts 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:38.539 Spy. Putting it on the masthead, that's prime 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:40.379 real estate. It's the front door of the paper. 00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:42.639 That means it was the official logo, staring 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:44.179 you in the face every single time you picked 00:14:44.179 --> 00:14:46.919 up a copy. The severed snake had been fully absorbed 00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:49.100 into the DNA of the American Resistance. So what 00:14:49.100 --> 00:14:51.220 does this all mean? Why should you listen and 00:14:51.220 --> 00:14:54.179 care about an old cartoon? Because symbols are 00:14:54.179 --> 00:14:57.340 powerful, shape -shifting tools. And their usefulness 00:14:57.340 --> 00:15:00.059 rarely ends when a specific war is over. True. 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:04.649 The join... or die snake, proved so potent that 00:15:04.649 --> 00:15:07.330 it transcended the revolutionary era entirely. 00:15:08.029 --> 00:15:10.129 It became a permanent fixture in the American 00:15:10.129 --> 00:15:12.929 visual vocabulary. Whenever a crisis of unity 00:15:12.929 --> 00:15:15.809 arose, the snake reappeared. Like during the 00:15:15.809 --> 00:15:18.070 American Civil War in the 19th century. Yes. 00:15:18.509 --> 00:15:21.190 When the country tore itself apart, the image 00:15:21.190 --> 00:15:24.590 was resurrected. And astoundingly, it was heavily 00:15:24.590 --> 00:15:27.110 utilized by both the Union and the Confederacy. 00:15:27.250 --> 00:15:30.519 Both sides. Both sides of a brutal, bloody civil 00:15:30.519 --> 00:15:33.159 war looked at Franklin's snake and claimed it 00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:35.580 as their own exclusive symbol of righteous unity. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:38.139 They just altered the labels on the snake segments 00:15:38.139 --> 00:15:40.360 to fit the states they were appealing to. It 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:41.840 really just proves the point about it being an 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:44.419 inkblot test. The image is a vessel. You just 00:15:44.419 --> 00:15:46.419 pour whatever political cause you want into it. 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:48.840 Exactly. And that phenomenon hasn't stopped, 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:52.620 even today. This 270 -year -old doodle is literally 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:55.240 etched into modern culture. And into modern skin. 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:58.519 Yes. The transition from colonial woodcut to 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:01.440 modern tattoo is a massive testament to the image's 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.659 staying power. Our source material highlights 00:16:03.659 --> 00:16:07.059 how join or die has become a popular tattoo today. 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:09.860 And it's fascinating because you see this image 00:16:09.860 --> 00:16:13.299 cross completely different modern political and 00:16:13.299 --> 00:16:15.519 cultural lines. And I think it's really important 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:17.980 to pause here and say directly to you listening, 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:20.639 we're just reporting the facts found in our source 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:23.460 material as examples of the image's legacy. Right, 00:16:23.659 --> 00:16:26.100 absolutely. We are maintaining absolute neutrality 00:16:26.100 --> 00:16:29.139 here. We aren't endorsing any political viewpoints, 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:31.860 right wing or left wing. We're merely highlighting 00:16:31.860 --> 00:16:35.549 how this symbol persists today. on very different 00:16:35.549 --> 00:16:38.009 public figures. Exactly. Because on one hand, 00:16:38.190 --> 00:16:40.409 you have the comedian and late -night host Craig 00:16:40.409 --> 00:16:43.269 Ferguson. Right. He got the snick tattooed on 00:16:43.269 --> 00:16:47.169 his right forearm back in 2009, right after he 00:16:47.169 --> 00:16:49.809 became a naturalized United States citizen. For 00:16:49.809 --> 00:16:51.649 him, it seems to be a celebration of joining 00:16:51.649 --> 00:16:53.750 the American experiment. And then on the other 00:16:53.750 --> 00:16:56.029 hand, the source notes that current United States 00:16:56.029 --> 00:16:58.929 Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth... also has 00:16:58.929 --> 00:17:01.970 the cartoon tattooed on his right forearm. It's 00:17:01.970 --> 00:17:04.049 a striking contrast in personal backgrounds and 00:17:04.049 --> 00:17:06.970 public roles. It really is. And it perfectly 00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:09.809 illustrates the dual nature of these historical 00:17:09.809 --> 00:17:12.869 symbols we are talking about. People across the 00:17:12.869 --> 00:17:15.289 entire political spectrum look at this colonial 00:17:15.289 --> 00:17:18.190 doodle and find their own distinct personal meaning 00:17:18.190 --> 00:17:21.190 in it. A comedian celebrating his naturalization. 00:17:21.609 --> 00:17:24.269 And a military veteran turns Secretary of Defense. 00:17:24.369 --> 00:17:26.329 Both can look at a chopped up snake and find 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:30.359 profound significance. We're observing a historical 00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:33.339 inkblot test playing out in real time, completely 00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:35.480 removed from the eight specific colonies Franklin 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:38.119 originally intended to persuade. If we connect 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:40.839 this to the bigger picture, it is astounding 00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:43.380 to trace the lineage of this image. It really 00:17:43.380 --> 00:17:46.980 is. We started with a localized, somewhat gruesome 00:17:46.980 --> 00:17:50.299 frontier folk superstition about a snake resurrecting 00:17:50.299 --> 00:17:52.630 before sunset. Right. Benjamin Franklin harnessed 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:54.990 that superstition, combined it perhaps with an 00:17:54.990 --> 00:17:57.450 old French emblem, to support an administrative 00:17:57.450 --> 00:17:59.490 defense plan during the French and Indian War. 00:17:59.609 --> 00:18:01.829 And then the printers hijacked it. Flipping it 00:18:01.829 --> 00:18:03.950 into a revolutionary icon against the British. 00:18:04.109 --> 00:18:06.390 From there, it survived the centuries to become 00:18:06.390 --> 00:18:09.230 a battle cry for both opposing sides of the American 00:18:09.230 --> 00:18:12.470 Civil War. And today it lives on in pop culture 00:18:12.470 --> 00:18:16.009 and modern tattoo parlors, fundamentally separated 00:18:16.009 --> 00:18:18.869 from its original, highly specific political 00:18:18.869 --> 00:18:21.670 context. It really was the first American meme 00:18:21.670 --> 00:18:24.789 long before the Internet, long before algorithms 00:18:24.789 --> 00:18:27.890 dictated what goes viral. A striking image paired 00:18:27.890 --> 00:18:31.069 with a catchy, urgent slogan captured the public's 00:18:31.069 --> 00:18:33.950 imagination. It was shared, altered, remixed, 00:18:34.089 --> 00:18:36.750 and completely repurposed by different factions 00:18:36.750 --> 00:18:39.690 to serve their own agendas. Franklin basically 00:18:39.690 --> 00:18:43.009 released the open source code for American political 00:18:43.009 --> 00:18:45.930 propaganda. He did. This raises an important 00:18:45.930 --> 00:18:48.450 question, and one I hope you will mull over long 00:18:48.450 --> 00:18:50.049 after you finish listening today. Let's hear 00:18:50.049 --> 00:18:52.670 it. When you put an idea, a piece of art, or 00:18:52.670 --> 00:18:55.089 a message out into the world, who really owns 00:18:55.089 --> 00:18:58.650 its meaning? Wow. We just saw how Benjamin Franklin, 00:18:58.829 --> 00:19:01.390 one of the greatest, most persuasive and strategic 00:19:01.390 --> 00:19:04.049 minds of the American Enlightenment, was completely 00:19:04.049 --> 00:19:06.609 powerless to control the narrative of his own 00:19:06.609 --> 00:19:08.710 simple doodle. Totally powerless. Despite his 00:19:08.710 --> 00:19:10.809 best efforts to pull it back and urge moderation, 00:19:11.269 --> 00:19:13.170 the public took it and ran with it. They made 00:19:13.170 --> 00:19:15.500 it theirs. If a genius like Franklin couldn't 00:19:15.500 --> 00:19:17.799 stop his artwork from being hijacked by the viral 00:19:17.799 --> 00:19:20.859 networks of the 18th century, how can any modern 00:19:20.859 --> 00:19:24.380 creator, artist, or public figure expect to control 00:19:24.380 --> 00:19:27.519 their own messaging in today's age of endless, 00:19:27.980 --> 00:19:30.099 rapid -fire information sharing? They probably 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:32.559 can't. Once an idea leaves your mind and enters 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:35.240 the public square, it belongs to the public. 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:37.900 For better or for worse, they will decide what 00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:40.410 it means. That is such a fascinating thought 00:19:40.410 --> 00:19:42.710 to leave on. You might create the symbol, but 00:19:42.710 --> 00:19:45.509 the audience creates the meaning. Thank you so 00:19:45.509 --> 00:19:47.190 much for joining us on this deep dive today. 00:19:47.710 --> 00:19:49.890 We hope you enjoyed tracing the incredible, shape 00:19:49.890 --> 00:19:52.309 -shifting history of the join or die snake as 00:19:52.309 --> 00:19:54.509 much as we did. Keep questioning the media you 00:19:54.509 --> 00:19:56.710 see around you, keep looking for those surprising 00:19:56.710 --> 00:19:59.670 historical connections, and above all, keep that 00:19:59.670 --> 00:20:02.029 curiosity alive. Until next time.