Betsy Ross presenting the first American flag to General George Washington, by Edward Percy Moran. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Photo illustration by ToledoFAVS.com with apologies to Mr. Moran.
March is Women’s History Month and I figured this would be a great time to share some thoughts on Betsy Ross.
Elizabeth Phoebe Griscom (Betsy Ross), was born in Philadelphia on Jan. 1, 1752 and is credited with making the first American flag at the personal request from none other than General George Washington in 1776.
We really don’t know a whole lot about Betsy’s childhood, but it is safe to say she learned all about needlework at home, or at the Quaker schools she would have attended. After she finished her schooling her father apprenticed her to an upholsterer. That is where she met and fell in love with her fellow apprentice, John Ross.
John Ross was not a Quaker, so John and Betsy eloped in 1773. The marriage caused a split between Betsy and her family and resulted in Betsy being forced to leave her Quaker congregation. The young couple started their own upholstery business and soon found themselves joining Christ Church in Philadelphia.
(Many notable people attended Christ Church at the time, including future delegates to the Continental Congress and many other leaders of the future revolution, including George Washington. Betsy Ross and George Washington often talked at church; this does help explain why out of all the upholstery shops in Philadelphia, Washington ended up asking Betsy to make a flag. (At the time upholsterers often earned money by doing needlework, including making flags.)
One day while John Ross was serving with the militia at the Philadelphia waterfront, gunpowder exploded and Betsy Ross found herself a widow. Betsy kept the upholstery business going and even picked up work making flags for Pennsylvania. John and Betsy had no children together, so at the time of the “flag story” Betsy was a young, childless widow.
Betsy remarried in 1777. Husband number two was a sailor by the name of Joseph Ashburn. He had the bad luck of being on a ship that was captured by the British in 1781 and died in 1782 while in prison.
Betsy married one more time. The year was 1783, and husband number three was John Claypoole, who just so happened to have been in prison with Joseph Ashburn (husband number two). John and Betsy met when John delivered Joseph’s farewells to Betsy. After a long disability, John died in 1817.
Just in case you were wondering, Betsy Ross died on Jan. 30, 1836 at age 84. (From what I can tell, Betsy has been buried almost as many times as Abe Lincoln. Remind me to tell you that story sometime.)
The story of Betsy Ross making the first flag was told by her grandson and published in Harper’s Monthly in 1873. By the mid-1880s the story was included in textbooks and soon was taught as a historical fact to schoolchildren.
The Betsy Ross story was a great fit for America in the late 1800s, and it really did not matter if it was true or not. The story was perfect for a few reasons. Due to the change in women’s lives during the late 1800s in the United States and the recognition of these changes, America needed a “Founding Mother” to stand alongside the “Founding Fathers.”
Betsy Ross was the perfect “Founding Mother” to attract the attention of America. She was a widow who lost not only one husband to the American Revolution, but two husbands; what could be more patriotic than that? She had a young child (remember, Betsy had no children when John died and she did not remarry until 1777, a year after the “flag” story). And she was making her own way in life. The fact that Betsy Ross earned a living by being a seamstress, a nice traditional women’s occupation, also served the story nicely.
The American people loved the story George Washington himself asking the young widow, whose young husband died while serving in the militia, to make a symbol for the young nation to rally around. The story about a flag and patriotism made people feel good.
The thing that makes Betsy Ross so important and worth remembering is the fact that her life is an example of what many far too many women in American history have found to be the reality in the time of war. Many “Founding Mothers” faced widowhood and single motherhood, which resulted in them often independently managing property and a household. Many sought a quick remarriage as a means of survival for economic reasons, with the hope of companionship and maybe even love.
It is interesting that we have all heard the story of Betsy Ross and the first flag, a story that may or may not be true, and yet the stories of so many other women have been totally forgotten or ignored. Yes we need to remember the Founding Fathers, but we also need to remember the Founding Mothers and the hard times they endured and the sacrifices they made to make the United States a great nation.