Printed and Manuscript Americana

"Unite or Die"

Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by William and Thomas Bradford, March 8, 1775. Numb. 1683. Printed newspaper on bifolium. Disbound; light scattered spotting.

Printed only six weeks before the "shot heard 'round the world" at Lexington and Concord, this issue of the Pennsylvania Journal; and the Weekly Advertiser bridles with writings and reports reflecting the impending armed conflict, and features the iconic "Unite or Die" masthead, America's first and most famous political cartoon. Benjamin Franklin first created the dissected snake to rally the 13 American colonies during the French and Indian War, and it was first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, Philadelphia printers William and Thomas Bradford appropriated the image and prominently placed it as their masthead from July 12, 1774, through October 18, 1775.

Within, several Loyalists and British sympathizers are excoriated, with one patriot warning that unless they "desist in time, otherwise their names will be handed down to posterity with the infamy they merit." A letter signed by the Select-men of Plymouth, Kingston, etc., issue a protest against General Thomas Gage for his placement of British troops in Mansfield during a time of peace, writing that the motive to send them, "appears as evident as if written with a sun-beam, from the general tenor of the testimony...that their expressions of fear, were a fallacious pretext, dictated by the inveterate enemies of our constitution, to induce your Excellency to send troops into the country, to augment the difficulties of our situation, already very distressing..." Inside, is printed a lengthy rejoinder to arch-Loyalist Joseph Galloway's pamphlet A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great-Britain, and her Colonies, of which the anonymous author writes that he "eagerly began a careful perusal of the Pamphlet; but what was my surprise to find, that instead of deducing the rights of America from a 'most solid foundation,' you have laboured to shew, that America has no rights at all..." Finally, foreshadowing the coming hostilities, an extract from a letter from Boston reports, "we are well armed against any attack that may be made on us. We have at least twenty thousand Minute-Men, that are ready to be turned into the field at a moment's warning...and they are not afraid to face any Kings troops that ever wore a head...if they do, we must defend ourselves, or we ought to die like dogs..."