Primary sourcePainting9 May 1754

Join, or Die

Benjamin Franklin · 9 May 1754

Franklin's 1754 woodcut cartoon of a severed snake, urging the American colonies to unite, often called the first American political cartoon.

Franklin created this woodcut cartoon himself to argue for colonial unity, making it a direct expression of his political thinking.

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Woodcut-style image of a segmented snake cut into pieces, each labeled with a colony abbreviation (S.C., N.C., V., M., N.J., N.Y., N.E.), above the caption 'JOIN, or DIE.' Printed newspaper text surrounds the framed image. — Benjamin Franklin, Join, or Die, in The Pennsylvania Gazette, 9 May 1754.

About this source

What it is

This woodcut, attributed to Benjamin Franklin, appeared in his newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. It shows a snake cut into eight pieces, each labeled with the initials of a colony, under the caption 'JOIN, or DIE.' A copy is held by the Library of Congress.

Why it matters

Created during the French and Indian War, the cartoon used an old superstition that a cut snake could be made whole again before sunset to argue that the colonies needed to unite against a common threat. It is considered the earliest known pictorial image of colonial union made by an American, and Franklin published it alongside his own editorial on the colonies' disunity.

Look closer

Why might a snake have been a powerful symbol for this message, rather than words alone?
Why are some colonies, like Georgia and Delaware, missing from the image?
How did the meaning of this image change when it was reused later, during the Revolution?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Benjamin Franklin on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.