The Story of America's Mascot—Uncle Sam

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Shop now for family favorites. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. The word mascot is French, originating from the French term for lucky charm. Originally tied to anything thought to bring prosperity to a household, mascots today bring a form of identity to a sports team, a company, or a nation. Here to tell the story of how America's mascot, Uncle Sam, came to be is Wall Street Journal contributor, Stu Halpern.

Take it away, Stu. So the rumor long persisted that Uncle Sam was actually based on a real life figure. That figure was a fellow by the name of Samuel Wilson. Now Wilson lived in the late 1700s.

He was born outside of Boston in 1766. And during the War of 1812, fought by the United States against Britain, Wilson was a popular and impactful figure. He provided barrels of meat to American troops and the barrels were stamped with the sign US. So the story goes that a soldier turned to someone and asked, Well, what does US stand for? And he was told, Uncle Sam Wilson is he who is feeding the army. And historians have actually said, it's not surprising that this myth of origins arose from this rather avuncular fellow because as historian Alton Ketchum has noted, quote, an atmosphere of jocularity seems to have pervaded Samuel Wilson's operations wherever he went.

This was thought to be the origins of the mythical figure, the personified United States. But a few years ago, there was a discovery made of a journal by Isaac Mayo, who was a teenage Navy midshipman. And that proved that in fact, the nickname Uncle Sam had predated Sam Wilson's appearance in the War of 1812. On March 24, 1810, Mayo wrote in his diary from the USS Wasp where he was serving on the ship, quote, the first and second day out, I was most deadly seasick.

Oh, could I have gone on shore in the height of it? I swear that Uncle Sam, as they call him, would certainly forever have lost the services of at least one sail. In other words, already in 1810, people were talking about the United States through this personified character of Uncle Sam, even before our beloved Sam Wilson was packing meat to serve to sailors. Well, regardless of the actual origins, the nickname Uncle Sam actually stopped. And so the figure started to be depicted on political cartoons, such as one in 1832. That cartoon, which was elaborating on the debate over President Andrew Jackson's attack on the bank of the United States was titled Uncle Sam in danger. And in that image, Uncle Sam is round faced and clean shaven, wearing a star and striped gown and what was known as a Liberty cap, not yet the top hat that he would later be known for. Over time, as the historian David Hackett Fisher has shown the dressing gown depicted in that painting was replaced by a swallowtail coat, and the Liberty cap turned into a beaver.

Not yet again, the top hat that we will know and eventually love. Now, a lot of countries are known as maternal or paternal figures or images. Germany is known as a fatherland to Germans, Russians speak of Mother Russia, but the American Republic, its idea of the nation state as a kindly old uncle to whom Americans feel attached, but not dependent is something that uniquely characterizes America. During the Civil War, Uncle Sam symbolized the union in an 1862 lithograph, known as Yankee volunteers marching into Dixie. There's an entire army of identical Sams who are at that point clean shaven and smiling as they march towards an assured victory on the part of the north. Around the same time, however, some artists started depicting Uncle Sam as Lincoln-like because, of course, the union idolized the beloved president and they started depicting Uncle Sam as being similar in this age. So Uncle Sam became tall, lanky and bearded, unlike in those earlier depictions. So closely, in fact, was Lincoln identified with the figure of this mythical Uncle Sam that when Lincoln was assassinated, a reporter in Charleston, South Carolina, described how upon hearing of Lincoln's assassination, a black woman wrung her hands together and wailed on the street that Uncle Sam had been killed. Now, Sam, of course, outlived President Lincoln, as he has outlived all previous and for sure subsequent American political leaders. Perhaps the best known image of Uncle Sam was made by an illustrator named James Montgomery Flagg. He made this image for Leslie's Weekly magazine in 1960. This was before America entered World War One, and the original iteration of the image demanded to know from this depicted Uncle Sam.

What are you doing for preparedness? The stern face poster asks its onlookers. Once the U.S. entered the war, now this was World War One, the text was changed to, I want you for the U.S. Army. And in this depiction, Uncle Sam now looked a little bit less like Lincoln, but more like the British Lord Kitchener, who had conquered Sudan on behalf of the British Empire. So Uncle Sam morphed, if you will, as his myth continued to grow and find new political context to impact. And this Uncle Sam, not like a lanky, unintimidating Lincoln, was more mighty and more intimidating looking, a figure befitting a military striving for victory in war.

And this poster by Flagg was printed in the millions. In fact, four million were distributed to the U.S. during the war, fixing Uncle Sam in the national imagination. A few decades later in World War Two, Uncle Sam swapped his high hat for a GI helmet. And on factory posters, he urged workers to be efficient and warned against spreading rumors about how the war was going and other such matters.

There was even a version aimed at farmers, yes farmers, and it wanted to tell the farmers to get ready for the census taker who would be asking them about crops, livestock, and even tractors. In other words, Uncle Sam was making hyper specific appearances in different segments of American political and civil society. In the 21st century, Uncle Sam shows no signs of slowing down despite his age.

Uncle Sam will no doubt be there as he always has been in various forms, offering a comforting shoulder, a sense of purpose, and hopefully, like his purported namesake, Sam Wilson was known a good joke. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery and Reagan Habib. And a special thanks to Stu Halpern. His book, The Promise of Liberty, a Passover Haggadah, is available in bookstores, on Amazon, or wherever you get your books.

I urge you to get it. The story of Uncle Sam, his beginnings we're still not sure, to today and beyond. The story of America's mascot, here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories. Send us your stories, small or large, to our email, OAS at OurAmericanStories.com.

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