The Story of America's Mascot—Uncle Sam

On this episode of Our American Stories, many countries have mascots. Canada has Johnny Canuck, Israel has Srulik, the U.K. has John Bull—and the United States has Uncle Sam. But how did he come to be? It turns out it wasn’t the work of an intrepid cartoonist or a government initiative, but barrels full of meat during the War of 1812 that gave the USA its persona. Here’s the story of everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the man in red, white, and blue.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
The word mascot is French, originating from the French term
for lucky charm, originally tied to anything thought to bring
prosperity to a household. Mascots today bring a form of

(00:30):
identity to a sports team, a company, or a nation.
Here to tell the story of how America's mascot Uncle
Sam came to be is Wall Street Journal contributor Stu Halpern.
Take it away, Stu.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So. The rumor long persisted that Uncle Sam was actually
based on a real life figure. That figure was a
fellow by the name of Samuel Wilson. Now Wilson lived
in the late seventeen hundreds. He was born outside of
Boston in seventeen sixty six, and during the War of
eighteen twelve, fought by the United States against Britain, Wilson

(01:09):
was a popular and impactful figure. He provided barrels of
meat to American troops, and the barrels were stamped with
the sign US. So. The story goes that a soldier
turned to someone and asked, well, what does the US
stand for? And he was told Uncle Sam Wilson, and
is he who is feeding the army? And historians have

(01:30):
actually said it's not surprising that this myth of origins
arose from this rather a vuncular fellow, because, as historian
Alton Ketchum has noted, quote, an atmosphere of jocularity seems
to have pervaded Samuel Wilson's operations wherever he went. This
was thought to be the origins of the mythical figure
the personified the United States. But a few years ago

(01:52):
there was a discovery maid of a journal by Isaac Mayo,
who was a teenage Navy midshipman, and proved that in fact,
the name Uncle Sam had predated Sam Wilson's appearance in
the War of eighteen twelve. On March twenty fourth, eighteen ten,
Mayo wrote in his diary from the USS Wasp, where
he was serving on the ship, quote the first and

(02:14):
second day out of his most deadly seasick, Oh, could
I have gone on shore in the height of it?
I swear that Uncle Sam, as they call him, would
certainly forever have lost the services of at least one Salem.
In other words, already in eighteen ten, people were talking
about the United States through this personifying character of Uncle Sam,

(02:36):
even before our beloved Sam Wilson was packing meat to
serve to salems. Well, regardless of the actual origins, the
nickname Uncle Sam actually stopped, and so the figure started
to be depicted on political cartoons, such as one in
eighteen thirty two. That cartoon, which was elaborating on the
debate over President Andrew Jackson's attack on the Bank of

(02:57):
the United States was titled Uncle Sam in Danger, and
in that image, Uncle Sam is round faced and clean shaven,
wearing a star and striped gown and what was known
as a liberty cap, not yet the top hat that
he would later be known for. Over time, as the
historian David Hackett Fisher has shown, the dressing gown depicted
in that painting was replaced by a swallowtail coat, and

(03:20):
the liberty cap turned into a beaver hat, not yet
again the top hat that we will know and eventually
love now. A lot of countries are known as maternal
or paternal figures or images. Germany is known as the
Fatherland to Germans Russian speaker mother Russia, but the American Republic,

(03:41):
its idea of the nation state as a kindly old
uncle to whom Americans feel attached but not dependent. It's
something that uniquely characterizes America. During the Civil War, Uncle
Sam symbolized the Union in an eighteen sixty two lithograph
known as Yankee Volunteers Marching into Dick's. There's an entire

(04:01):
army of identical Sam's who are at that point clean,
shaven and smiling as they marched towards an assured victory
on the part of the North. Around the same time, however,
some artists started depicting Uncle Sam as Lincoln like, because,
of course, the Union idolized the beloved President, and they
started depicting Uncle Sam as being similar in visage. So

(04:24):
Uncle Sam became tall, lanky, and beard unlike in those
earlier depictions. So closely, in fact, was Lincoln identified with
the figure of this mythical Uncle Sam that when Lincoln
was assassinated, a reporter in Charleston, South Carolina described how,
upon hearing of lincoln'ssassination, a bereave black woman wrung her

(04:45):
hands together and wailed on the street that Uncle Sam
had been killed. Now Sam, of course outlived President Lincoln,
as he has outlived all previous and for sure subsequent
American police leaders. Perhaps the best known image of Uncle
Sam was made by an illustrator named James Montgomery Flagg.

(05:07):
He made this image for Leslie's Weekly magazine in nineteen sixty.
This was before America entered World War One, and the
original iteration of the image demanded to know from this
depicted Uncle Sam, what are you doing for preparedness? The
stern face poster asked its onlookers. Once US entered the war,
now this was World War One, the text was changed

(05:27):
to I want you for the US Army, And in
this depiction Uncle Sam now looked a little bit less
like Lincoln, but more like the British Lord Kitchener, who
had conquered Sudan on behalf of the British Empire. So
Uncle Sam morphed, if you will, as his myth continued
to grow and find new political contexts to impact. And

(05:48):
this Uncle Sam, not like a lanky, unintimidating Lincoln, was
more mighty and more intimidating, looking a figure befitting a
military striving for victory in war. And this poster by
flag was printed in the millions. In fact, four million
were distributed to the US during the war, fixing Uncle
Sam in the national imagination. A few decades later, in

(06:10):
World War Two, Uncle Sam swapped his high hat for
a gi helmet, and on factory posters he urged workers
to be efficient and warned against spreading rumors about how
the war was going. In other such matters, there was
even a version aimed at farmers, Yes, farmers, and it
wanted to tell the farmers to get ready for the
census taker who would be asking them about crops, livestock,

(06:32):
and even tractors. In other words, Uncle Sam was making
hyper specific appearances in different segments of American political and
civil society. In the twenty first century, Uncle Sam shows
no signs of slowing down. Despite his age. Uncle Sam
will no doubt be there as he always has been
in various forms, offering a comforting shoulder, a sense of purpose,
and hopefully, like his purported namesake, Sam Wilson was known

(06:56):
a good joke.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Job on the production editing and storytelling by our own
Monty Montgomery and Reagan Habib and a special thanks to
Stu Halpern. His book The Promise of Liberty A Passover
Hagata is available in bookstores on Amazon or wherever you
get your books, I urge you to get it. The
story of Uncle Sam, his beginnings were still not sure

(07:21):
to today and beyond, the story of America's mascot. Here
on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of
our American Stories. Every day on this show we tell
stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories.
Send us your story small or large to our email

(07:44):
oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. That'sas at Ouramerican Stories
dot com. We'd love to hear them and put them
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