Read a historical political cartoon: symbols, labels and message

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Join, or Die, 1751 to 1754 (cards A to D). Card A, a summary in our words from the Library of Congress guide to Chronicling America: on May 9, 1754, in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Benjamin Franklin published the "Join or Die" woodcut, the first political cartoon published in a newspaper in America. It shows America as a snake cut into pieces. Before the French and Indian War, Franklin hoped to persuade the colonies to unite against the French and their Native allies. Card B, a description in our words of the picture: a snake is cut into eight pieces. Each piece carries the initials of a colony or region, from N.E. (New England) at the head to S.C. (South Carolina) at the tail. Under the snake are the words "JOIN, or DIE." Card C, a summary in our words from the National Park Service: Franklin designed the woodcut to encourage solidarity against the French. The park service says colonists understood the favorable biblical and mythological references to snakes that Franklin was making, and that Franklin launched the rattlesnake as a symbol of the American colonies in these early years. Card D, a summary in our words from the same Library of Congress guide: on May 9, 1751, three years earlier, the Gazette printed a piece signed "Americanus," a pseudonym of Franklin, suggesting that rattlesnakes be sent to England in response to England's shipping of convicts to the colonies.

2. 1.

   Card A says Franklin published the woodcut in his own newspaper. What does that tell a reader about it, Ari asks?

   • A copy of an earlier London cartoon that the Gazette reprinted
   • A government agency made it to record events for later historians to read
   • An individual publisher made it to persuade readers, so it is an argument
   • Congress ordered it printed to unite the colonies against France
3. 2.

   Who was the woodcut aimed at, and what did it want them to do, Bo asks?

   • French leaders in Canada; to stop their attacks on the colonies
   • The king's ministers in London; to raise taxes on the colonies
   • Readers in England; to send more settlers across the ocean
   • Colonial readers; to unite against the French and their allies
4. 3.

   What does the snake cut into pieces stand for in card B, Esme asks?

   • One colony split into eight small towns that no longer talk
   • A real snake that bit travelers on the roads of Pennsylvania
   • The colonies divided from one another, who must join to survive
   • A French army cut apart by the colonists in battle
5. 4.

   A student writes: "The cartoon shows the colonies had agreed to unite in 1754." How strong is that claim, given cards A and B, Kira asks?

   • Strong: card B shows the colonies joined together as one snake
   • Weak: card A says Franklin hoped to persuade them, so they had not yet united
   • Strong: card C says colonists understood its meaning, so they agreed to join
   • Weak: card A says the cartoon was not printed in a newspaper
6. 5.

   A student writes: "Franklin made the 1754 cartoon to oppose British rule." How strong is that claim, given card A, Luz asks?

   • Weak: card A says it urged unity against the French and their Native allies
   • Strong: card D shows Franklin was angry at England in 1751
   • Strong: card C says colonists knew what the snake stood for
   • Strong: the same snake was used against Britain twenty years later in 1774
7. 6.

   Card C is a National Park Service summary. What does it add, and what is its limit, Noah asks?

   • A modern federal reading of the symbol, not something written in 1754
   • Franklin's own explanation of why he chose the snake
   • A newspaper advertisement for the woodcut from 1754
   • A report by someone who saw the woodcut printed in Philadelphia in 1754
8. 7.

   Cards D (1751) and A (1754) are both from Franklin's newspaper. What do they show together, Pia asks?

   • Franklin used snake imagery more than once for a political point
   • Both pieces urged the same action from the colonies
   • The 1751 piece was the same woodcut as the 1754 one, printed twice
   • Franklin stopped using snakes after 1751
9. 8.

   Is the woodcut good evidence that the colonies faced real danger from the French in 1754, Ren asks?

   • Yes: a printed picture is proof that the danger was real
   • It shows what Franklin wanted readers to believe; other sources must check
   • No: a cartoon cannot be used as evidence about the past
   • Yes: Franklin was famous, so whatever he drew must have been right about the French
10. 9.

    What new evidence would best show how 1754 readers took the woodcut's message, Tala asks?

    • Another museum copy of the same woodcut, to look at it again
    • A list of Franklin's inventions and his scientific work
    • The Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the debates before it
    • Letters or newspaper pieces from 1754 that react to the woodcut
11. 10.

    How might a colonist and a French officer each read the woodcut, Zee asks?

    • Both would read it the same way, as just a warning about snakes in the woods
    • The French officer would read it as an order to Britain
    • Neither could read it, since it carried no words
    • The colonist a call to unite; the French officer a threat to French plans