Tags: Independence Day
On May 9, 1754, Benjamin Franklin published the political cartoon “Join, or Die” in the Pennsylvania Gazette, a Philadelphia-based newspaper that he owned. One of the oldest known political cartoons, this image was originally designed to rally the American colonies to behind the British cause in the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
The pro-Britain cartoon is usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin himself, and yet, just twenty two years after…