This banner is associated with General George Washington. It is square with a natural-colored background and a single green pine tree at the center; three sides have fringe. Above the tree reads "We Appeal to Heaven" and below is "1776".
banners
cotton (textile)
linen (material)
Banner
This banner represents the "Pine Tree Flag" or "Appeal to Heaven Flag" that was commissioned by George Washington in 1775. Used by six cruiser ships during the American Revolution, the flag featured a white pine tree with the motto "An Appeal to Heaven" emblazoned above it, based on the designs created by Washingtons secretary, Colonel Joseph Reed.
The pine tree was symbolic in North America prior to European contact. Indigenous nations, including the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk, viewed the pine tree as the symbol of peace that marked the end of warring and the formation of the Haudenosaunee (referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy by the French and the League of Nations by the English). Succeeding the end of the warring that occurred between 1350-1600, the five nations buried their weapons beneath a white pine "The Tree of Peace" planted by the Great Peacemaker at Onondaga. The pine tree appears on the Hiawatha Belt, the national belt of the Haudenosaunee, and has been fashioned onto flags that have appeared throughout the world.
Colonists adopted the pine tree in the late 17th century, incorporating the symbol onto flags for colonial merchant ships. Pine trees later became a symbol of resistance leading up to the American Revolution, appearing on flags, banners, and currency, as a reminder of the English statutes that restricted the harvesting of white pines growing on colonial soil.
Along with the pine tree symbol, "An Appeal to Heaven" was on incorporated on the flag, a quote from John Lockes Two Treatises on Government. In this treatise, Locke wrote: "But my Son, when able, may seek the Relief of the Law, which I am denied: He or his Son may renew his Appeal, till he recover his Right. But the Conquered, or their Children, have no Court, no Arbitrator on Earth to appeal to. Then they may appeal, as Jephtha did, to Heaven, and repeat their Appeal, till they have recovered the native Right of their Ancestors, which was to have such a Legislative over them, as the Majority should approve, and freely acquiesce in." According to Locke, those who were governed unjustly and cannot appeal to the law, instead have a right to appeal to heaven.
The banner currently hangs in the book tower at Beauport, as a signifier of Henry Davis Sleepers fascination with Americas founding.
Original to Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House (Gloucester, Mass.),
Unknown
42 3/4 x 41 1/2 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of Constance McCann Betts, Helena Woolworth Guest and Frasier W. McCann
1942.2761
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