So, what’s the deal, did Betsy Ross sew the first American flag or what? Until his death in a munitions explosion in 1776, Betsy Ross helped out her husband in their tailoring and upholstery business. Following John Ross’ unfortunate and untimely demise, Betsy stepped up to take on full responsibility for the tailoring business which was why-at least according to American myth-no less than George Washington himself showed up at the tailor store one day in June of 1776. The legend goes that George Washington met with Betsy Ross specifically to discuss a design for the official flag of the country that revolution was to build. Again, according to legend, George Washington wanted a flag made of red and white stripes and thirteen six-pointed stars in a circle to represent the colonies. Betsy, however, talked him out of this by saying that five-pointed stars were much easier to cut. (Seems like it would be easier to cut six-pointed stars to me by simply folding and cutting a three-pointed star, but what do I know.) American mythology goes onto say that almost as soon as George Washington’s boots hit the front steps, Betsy Ross set about to making that first American flag.
So, is it true, or not? Did Betsy Ross really sew the first American flag?
Well, there are some problems. In the first place, this mythic meeting of giants of American history made it into history books courtesy of the story told by…Betsy Ross. George Washington, on the other hand, never recounted any part of this story. And there’s a further problem: Betsy Ross never related the full details of this story until she was dying, and then it was to her grandson William Canby, who was a mere lad of eleven at the time. Further complicating matters and lending some credence to the fact that the Ross bloodline has some procrastinators in it is that William Canby then did not publicly relate the story told him by granny Betsy for another thirty years. By the time William Canby got around to telling the story of the historical meeting between Betsy Ross and George Washington and the first American flag, almost a century had passed from when this meeting allegedly took place.
There is some written history that makes it easier to divine truth from myth, if not completely mark Betsy Ross as a teller of tall tales. A copy of Washington’s itinerary from June of 1776 does place him in Philadelphia around the time this meeting with Betsy Ross supposedly took place. Unfortunately, there is no entry of a meeting with any seamstress. (Rumor has arisen that the meeting was not necessarily about the flag specifically, if you get my drift so that could explain Betsy’s absence from the written record.) George Washington’s diary entry also neglects to mention that he had anything to do with the designing the American flag. And as if that isn’t enough, consider that the Continental Congress had never met to discuss designing of a flag. At the time the official flag was known as the Grand Union Flag and it was a kind of bastardization of the Union Jack, complete with red and white stripes. Washington was known to be okay with the general design of Grand Union Flag and had never given any indication he was interested in such a full scale redesign as legend has it.
So, did Betsy Ross really sew the first American flag? Probably not, alas.
