1870 Engraving: GADSDEN - Dont Tread on Me!

Prints“Don’t Tread On Me” Flag Designer

CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN. Revolutionary general and patriot; his personal standard, depicting a rattlesnake about to strike, with the "Don't Tread on Me!" underneath, gave his name to the Gadsden Flag.
Engraving by H.B. Hall, Morisania, N.Y., 1870. Uncolored. 6.5” x 9”, with margins extending to 11” x 14.5”. Choice Extremely Fine; the ragged right margin is easily matted or cropped. A fiery radical, Gadsden was one the first members of the Continental Congress to call for independence - and yet, at a time when popular feeling against the Loyalists was at a peak, was also one of the few who opposed confiscation of Tory property. “Don’t tread on me,” indeed.