“Unraveling the Mystery: Why Uncle Sam Really Calls Americans ‘Yankees’—The Surprising History You Never Knew!”
Uncle Sam – the name conjures up an image of a stern, bushy-browed figure in a star-spangled outfit, finger pointing with an urgency that screams, “I WANT YOU!” But have you ever stopped to wonder about the backstory of this iconic character? Could he really be just a colorful figment of artistic imaginations, or was there indeed a real Uncle Sam strutting along the streets of America? Let’s not forget, this fellow has been around since before Instagram influencers were born, shaping and shifting alongside the nation itself. From his inception as a representation of governmental authority to becoming a symbol of patriotic fervor and sometimes even contentious political agendas, Uncle Sam’s evolution is nothing short of fascinating. Strap on those metaphorical striped pants and grab your top hat, because this is one journey through history you won’t want to miss. Curious about how a meat packer turned into a national icon? Buckle up, we’re diving into the layers of that tale! For those itching to find out more, LEARN MORE.
It is one of the most iconic and enduring images in American history: a hollow-cheeked, white-haired figure with bushy eyebrows and a pointy goatee dressed in a tophat and tails emblazoned with the stars and stripes, pointing sternly at the viewer and declaring I WANT YOU FOR THE U.S. ARMY. This, of course, is Uncle Sam, the flamboyantly-dressed personification of the United States government. Whenever the nation has need of her people, you can be sure this flag-bedecked figure will be there to unite them in patriotic fervour. But where did Uncle Sam come from, and was he ever a real person? Well, pull on your striped pants and star-spangled top hat as we dive into the fascinating history of this All-American icon.
Despite his ubiquity today, Uncle Sam was far from the first personification of America. When Europeans first began to colonize the continent in the 16th Century, the preferred symbol of the exotic and untamed New World was the “Indian Queen”: a nude and voluptuous Native American woman astride a giant armadillo and brandishing a tomahawk. Over the next two centuries this figure slowly evolved – first into the tamer and more feminine “Indian Princess” and then into the neoclassically-inspired figure of Columbia. Named after Christopher Columbus, Columbia was in keeping with the other female personifications of nations at the time, such as Britannia for England, Caledonia for Scotland, Hibernia for Ireland, Marianne for France, and Italia Turrita for Italy. Many of these figures were, in turn, inspired by Minerva and Libertas – the Ancient Roman goddesses of wisdom and liberty. Many early depictions of Columbia show her in a classical toga and high-laced sandals, and either wearing or carrying a Phrygian Cap or pileus– a pointed cap with a turned-down peak given to freed slaves in the Roman Republic and a popular symbol of liberty. Other common accessories included a shield of the United States, a sword, a laurel wreath, a bust of George Washington, and a bald eagle. However, Columbia’s appearance was never really finalized, with later depictions showing her sporting a dress bedecked with the stars and stripes or even just the popular fashion of the period she was drawn. And while she managed to remain a popular symbol of America alongside Uncle Sam for more than a century, her popularity rapidly declined after 1924 when she was chosen as the logo of American film studio Columbia Pictures. Thereafter, the preferred female personification of the United States became Lady Liberty, made famous by the colossal statue in New York harbour gifted to the nation by France in 1886.
A more direct foreign counterpart to Uncle Sam, however, was John Bull, a male personification of England traditionally depicted as a portly country yeoman wearing a top hat, frock coat, and waistcoat – the latter often emblazoned with the Union Flag. Created in 1712 by John Arbuthnot, a close friend of British satirists Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, John Bull was originally a satirical character meant to poke fun at the British Whig Party but quickly evolved into a patriotic symbol of the practical and good-natured British everyman. Alongside France’s Marianne and decidedly less allegorical figures like Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, he would remain a popular stock character for political cartoonists until the end of the Second World War.
But the most direct ancestor of the Uncle Sam we know and love today was the now largely-forgotten character of Brother Jonathan. Dating from the Revolutionary War period, Brother Jonathan represented the stereotypical New England Yankee: brash, unsophisticated, and boorish but sly, independent, and scrappy. In this sense he had much in common with another popular allegorical figure of the time: Yankee Doodle, made famous by the classic patriotic song, more on this and why Yankee Doodle called the feather in his hat Macaroni in the Bonus Facts in a bit.
Like Yankee Doodle, Brother Jonathan started out as British caricature of the uppity American colonist, but was soon reclaimed as a symbol of the 13 colonies’ defiance of the British Crown; indeed, in most cartoons, ballads, and stage plays of the era, he is shown tricking, humiliating, and otherwise triumphing over British officials and soldiers and even John Bull himself. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the figure of Yankee Doodle had largely been absorbed into that of Brother Jonathan, with the latter acquiring the distinct appearance of a tall, thin, clean-shaven man dressed in striped pants and a top hat – usually second-hand and ill-fitting to illustrate the American values of thrift and practicality. In 1825, Brother Jonathan was immortalized as a symbol of New England by John Neal’s novel Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders, written to familiarize British readers with US language and customs. But just where the name “Brother Jonathan” came from is unclear. Tradition holds that the name originated with Connecticut governor John Trumbull, an ardent patriot whom George Washington affectionately referred to as “Brother Jonathan”. However, there is little evidence to support this, and the name likely originates from the English Civil War of 1642-1651, during which Puritan Roundheads and other forces opposed to King Charles I were disparagingly referred to as “Jonathans.” In the 18th Century, this by now common epithet was likely applied to the equally defiant American colonists.
But as time went by, the irreverent but largely heroic figure of Brother Jonathan began to take on more sinister undertones, becoming the mascot of the nativist Know-Nothing Party and appearing in political cartoons opposing the immigration of the Irish and Chinese and voting rights for African-Americans. Yikes. By the end of the American Civil War and the start of Reconstruction in 1865, Brother Jonathan’s utility as a national unifying symbol had come to an end. Not only was he a stereotypical Northern Yankee no self-respecting Southerner would identify with or rally behind, but he also represented a spirit of scrappy self-reliance and opposition to government authority that was quickly becoming passé. The Civil War had significantly increased the power and reach of the United States Government, and post-war America needed a new figure to symbolize Government authority and promote national unity. Enter Uncle Sam.
Unlike all the national personifications we have thus far discussed, Uncle Sam is unique in being the only one based on a real person – that is, if the official U.S. Government narrative is to be believed. As the story goes, the real-life Uncle Sam was one Samuel Wilson – no, not The Falcon from Marvel comic books, but a meat packer from Troy, New York. Born in Menotomy, Massachusetts – today known as Arlington – on September 13, 1766, Wilson was a childhood friend of one John Chapman, who would go on to become the legendary folk hero Johnny Appleseed.
While Wilson was still a child, he and his family moved to Mason, New Hampshire, where he served as a drummer boy on the village green. On the evening of April 18, 1775 – at the same time as Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride – Wilson’s drumming alerted the villagers of approaching British forces and allowed local militiamen to halt their advance. In 1781 at the age of fourteen, Wilson joined the Continental Army, where he served in a supporting role mending fences and tending, slaughtering, and butchering cattle to feed his fellow soldiers. His military service was brief, ending shortly after the British surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
In 1789, Wilson moved to Troy, New York, where he opened a meat packing plant. He soon gained a reputation for generosity, honesty, and fair dealing, and became affectionately known to the townspeople as “Uncle Sam.” In is this reputation which won him a contract to supply salted pork and beef to the U.S. Armed Forces during the War of 1812. To help distinguish meat earmarked for government use, Wilson began marking the barrels with the letters US for “United States” – an abbreviation which had not quite entered the vernacular at this point. On October 12, 1812, a group of government officials were touring the plant when one inspector inquired about the strange lettering on the barrels. A nearby worker, unfamiliar with the abbreviation, replied that it must stand for Uncle Sam. And thus a legend was born. American soldiers soon began referring to meat from Sam Wilson’s plant – and eventually all U.S. Government rations and equipment as “Bounty from Uncle Sam” or “Property of Uncle Sam” and even to themselves as “Uncle Sam’s Men.” By 1820, cartoons featuring Uncle Sam began appearing in New England newspapers, though at this point he looked very similar to the earlier Brother Jonathan: clean-shaven and dressed striped pants and a black top hat and tailcoat. He was also considerably fatter than his modern incarnations, resembling Benjamin Franklin in many early depictions. It was not until the 1830s that Uncle Sam was given his bright red pants, and not until the early 1860s that acquired his distinctive beard and gangly, hollow-cheeked physique – an appearance inspired by then-president Abraham Lincoln. This look, along with Uncle Sam’s iconic flag-themed outfit, was largely the creation of political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who is also credited with creating the modern image of Santa Claus and the donkey and elephant symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties. Nast originally used the figure of Uncle Sam to promote his utopian vision of the American Republic, such as in his 1869 cartoon Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner, in which Uncle Sam, along with his female counterpart Columbia, shares a harmonious turkey dinner with black, Chinese, Irish, Jewish, and other guests. But Nast’s vision was unusual for his time, as evidenced by an 1877 parody of his cartoon by George Frederick Keller which depicts the same scene as one of chaos, with all the guests behaving rudely and digging into their own national dishes rather than sharing Uncle Sam’s turkey. The message is clear: these people have no place at the American table. Indeed, the character and purpose of Uncle Sam have varied wildly depending on the national mood or who he was being depicted by. Originally a figure of internal unity, he became a symbol of American foreign intervention and military might, such as during the U.S. annexation of Hawaii in 1897 the Spanish-American War of 1898. Once an avowed foe of British national symbol John Bull, after the United States joined with Britain and other nations in crushing the Chinese Boxer Rebellion in 1900 the two became best of friends. The early 20th Century also saw Uncle Sam co-opted by corporate propaganda directed against labour organizations like the International Workers of the World, who were widely seen as foreign agitators bent on subverting and destabilizing the United States.
But the definitive and enduring depiction of Uncle Sam – the iconic I WANT YOU recruiting poster – would not come about until 1916, two years into the First World War. Though the United States would not join the conflict until the following year, by this point its entry seemed all but inevitable. Consequently, in July of that year the magazine Leslie’s Weekly commissioned illustrator James Montgomery Flagg to create an image urging Americans to prepare for war. Flagg based his design off an earlier and equally iconic British poster featuring Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, pointing at the viewer with the words BRITONS – LORD KITCHENER WANTS YOU. JOIN YOUR COUNTRY’S ARMY. GOD SAVE KING. Using himself as his model, Flagg painted Uncle Sam in the same pose, with the illustration first appearing on the cover of the July 6, 1916 issue of Leslie’s Weekly accompanied by the words WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR PREPAREDNESS? When the United States finally entered the First World War in April 1917, Flagg’s illustration was adapted into a recruiting poster, over four million of which were printed by war’s end.
This, at least, is the official story of Uncle Sam’s origin. Indeed, in 1931, a tombstone was erected at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, where Samuel Wilson died in 1854, bearing the words:
“In loving memory of ‘Uncle Sam’, the name originating with Samuel Wilson.”
Three decades later in 1961, the Eighty-Seventh Congress of the United States under President John F. Kennedy passed an act declaring:
“The Congress salutes ‘Uncle Sam’ Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of America’s National Symbol of ‘Uncle Sam.’”
While in 1989 Congress officially recognized Wilson’s birthday of September 13 as “Uncle Sam Day.”
However, considerable doubt surrounds Samuel Wilson’s claim to the origin of the Uncle Sam legend. For one thing, the earliest known mention of the character predates Wilson’s contract with the U.S. Government by two years. A footnote in an 1810 edition of the Baltimore magazine Niles’ Weekly Register defines Uncle Sam as “…a cant [slang] term in the army for the United States”, suggesting that the name was already well known by this time. Furthermore, the classic story of how one of Wilson’s plant workers mistook the abbreviation US for “Uncle Sam” comes from the May 12, 1830 edition of the New York Gazette. In that issue, Pheodorus Bailey, then Postmaster for New York City, recounted how he was among the government inspectors touring the Troy plant on October 12, 1812 when he overheard the worker make the fateful misunderstanding. The fact that this story was first written down nearly two decades after the alleged incident casts serious doubt on its authenticity.
But while Samuel Wilson may not, in fact, have been the inspiration for Uncle Sam, in a sense the figure we are familiar with today was a real person – or, rather, two real people. For while James Montgomery Flagg based his 1917 recruiting poster on himself, when tasked with updating the image during Second World War, he chose as his model a man named Walter Botts. Born in 1900 in Jackson Township, Indiana, Botts was a professional jazz trumpeter and sometime model who had previously posed for legendary illustrator Norman Rockwell. According to Botts, Flagg chose him because he
“…had the longest arms, the longest nose, and the bushiest eyebrows.”
And given that Flagg and Botts’ depictions are the ones that have endured to this day, it can be argued that they, and not Samuel Wilson, are the real Uncle Sam.
Bonus Fact:
Going back to Yankee Doodle and what the deal was with calling feathers macaroni, as with a lot of older songs, the tune and music that we today associate with “Yankee Doodle” was actually written much earlier than the 18th century. The melody may have been heard as early as the 1500s in Holland, with rather nonsensical lyrics about the harvest and farmers receiving their wage in buttermilk.
