In 1774, Benjamin Franklin revived his earlier snake imagery in the lesser-known “Unite or Die” cartoon to address the escalating imperial crisis following Parliament’s Coercive, or Intolerable, Acts, using the segmented rattlesnake to argue that the American colonies must now act in immediate, unified resistance or face political extinction; unlike the 1754 “Join, or Die” cartoon, published during the French and Indian War to urge intercolonial cooperation under British authority for mutual defense, the 1774 version reframed unity as a revolutionary necessity against Britain itself, not a means of strengthening the empire. The shift is ideological as much as contextual: in 1754, Franklin’s snake symbolized administrative weakness cured by cooperation within the imperial system, whereas in 1774 it conveyed existential peril caused by British overreach, implying that only colonial solidarity through collective action, boycotts, and ultimately armed resistance could restore American liberties. This evolution mirrors Franklin’s own political transformation from imperial reformer to revolutionary statesman and underscores how the same visual metaphor moved from advocating pragmatic unity to warning that disunity would result not merely in inefficiency, but in the death of American self-government.
Available in 6 super-soft and durable color options, sized XS through 3XL.
