2 x 3 FT GADSDEN NYL-GLO DYED

The yellow "Don't Tread on Me" Standard is usually referred to as the Gadsden flag or less commonly as the Hopkins flag.  Christopher Gadsden led the Sons of Liberty in South Carolina starting in 1765 and later was made Colonel in the Continental Army.  In 1775 he was a member of the Continental Congress and one of three members of the Marine Commission who outfitted the Alfred and her sister ships.  Gadsden and the Congress chose Esek Hopkins from Rhode Island as Commander in Chief of the Navy.  It is generally accepted that the flag Hopkins used as his personal standard on the Alfred was presented to him by Christopher Gadsden who believed that Hopkins should have a distinctive standard for the flagship Alfred.  Gadsden designed a new flag with yellow field bearing the rattlesnake symbol.  Legend has it that John Paul Jones as First Lieutenant ran the Gadsden Standard up the gaff on December 3, 1775 rather than the Continental Union flag.

The rattlesnake has been used as a symbol of American unity since the Seven Years War.  It was used again during the dispute over the Stamp Act twenty years later.  Two months after the meeting of the First Continental Congress, the Massachusetts Spy newspaper used the divided snake that extended across the width of the page with the slogan, "JOIN OR DIE" above an article urging the inhabitants of Quebec  to join the colonies in opposing Great Britain. The snake appeard repeatedly after the outbreak of fighting between the colonists and the British on newspapers, paper money, uniform buttons and a great number of military and naval flags with or without the slogan: "DON'T TREAD ON ME".