Our Defective Leaders

Frank Rich in the New York Times on race on the Fourth of July.

Betsy Ross, Capitalist

In Slate, a review of a new book that rewrites the sexist mythology of Betsy Ross:

Any second grader can tell you that early in the American Revolution, a Philadelphia woman named Betsy Ross made an American flag. She often appears in this flag creation account as a demure seamstress simply eager to help out the Revolutionary effort in any way she could. This is the narrative you'll hear in countless children's books—think Betsy Ross and the Silver Thimble. But what books like Silver Thimble won't tell you is that she also accepted a hefty £14 payment (roughly $2,000 in today's dollars) for that "first" flag. Or that she was married three times. The Betsy Ross that emerges in recent research is no sweet seamstress, but rather a tough businesswoman fond of dark snuff and storytelling.

Historian Michael Frisch has written that Ross occupies a similar place in American history as the Virgin Mary occupies in the Christian story: "Washington [as God the Father] calls on the humble seamstress Betsy Ross in her tiny home and asks if she will make the nation's flag, to his design. And Betsy promptly brings forth—from her lap!—the nation itself, and the promise of freedom and natural rights for all mankind."

The Dissent of a Veteran