How Betsy Ross Worked

Elizabeth Griscom was born on Jan. 1, 1752 to Samuel and Rebecca Griscom. The Griscom family had a sprawling presence in colonial Pennsylvania — Samuel's grandfather, Andrew Griscom, was a carpenter who was one of the earliest settlers in the Philadelphia area and built a significant portion of the city's first houses and buildings himself [source: Miller]. Both Samuel's and Rebecca's families had roots in Pennsylvania's Quaker religious sect.

Samuel and Rebecca had 17 children, but only nine of them lived to become adults. All of them were raised under the strict moral rules of Pennsylvania Quakerism. At age 15, Elizabeth (whom everyone called Betsy by then) was apprenticed to an upholsterer named John Webster, where she learned to sew, embroider and stitch drapes, furniture and sometimes flags [source: Historic Philadelphia].

It was there that she met John Ross, a fellow apprentice who eventually opened his own shop. John Ross's family was well-connected in the colonies — his uncle George Ross Jr., was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Betsy and Ross fell in love, which was a problem because John was an Anglican. Betsy's Quaker upbringing forbade her from marry a non-Quaker. So, the two eloped and married in New Jersey in 1773, which resulted in Betsy's expulsion by the Quakers and disownment by the Griscom family [source: Miller].

The Revolutionary War also brought turmoil to John and Betsy's lives. They were both firmly in favor of American independence, and the citizens of Philadelphia were busy forming associations and local militias throughout 1775 to defend the city. The specific details of John and Betsy Ross's wartime activities are unknown, but at some point in 1775, something happened to John Ross. His true fate was never recorded, and apparently Betsy didn't like to talk about it, so the facts of his life weren't passed down to subsequent generations. He may have been injured while participating in militia activities such as guarding gunpowder supplies, although there are rumors he suffered from a severe mental illness. In any case, Betsy became a widow on Jan. 21, 1776 [source: Miller]. After John's death, Betsy began attending meetings of the Free Quakers, also known as the Fighting Quakers, a splinter group that rejected the pacifism of mainline Quakers in order to support the war for independence.

Betsy Ross eventually married twice more. Her second husband Joseph Ashburn died in a British prison, but she lived in Philadelphia with her third husband, John Claypoole, for more than 20 years, until his death in 1817. She worked successfully as an upholsterer for most of her life, dying in 1836 at the age of 84. She was survived by five daughters.

You're probably wondering if there's something missing from Betsy Ross's life story, like maybe the one thing everyone knows her for. There's not much information about her involvement in the creation of the first American flag. No one really knows the true role she played. But Americans all know the legend of the Betsy Ross flag.

The story of the Betsy Ross flag is one Americans have told for more than 100 years. It goes like this:

Betsy Ross is working in her upholstery shop when a small group of men rushes in, a committee officially tasked by the Continental Congress with designing and creating the first American flag. Among them are Betsy's late husband's uncle, George Ross Jr., and George Washington himself. "We need a flag made," the men say.

"I can make you a flag," Betsy assuredly tells them.

The men have a sketch of a design, one with 13 stripes and 13 stars in a circular formation in the upper left. Betsy looks it over and makes a few suggestions regarding measurements and proportions. She points to the stars, which in the sketch have six points. "Five-pointed stars would be much better. Far easier to cut," she tells them.

The committee agrees, and a new sketch is drawn on the spot, incorporating Betsy's input. She goes to work, dutifully sewing together a grand old flag. It takes a few days, since it's a pretty big flag, but she finally finishes and delivers it to the committee.

The committee members fly the new flag on the mast of a ship to see how it looks, and they unanimously approve of this new "Star-Spangled Banner." The new nation is going to need lots of these flags, to fly as a symbol of liberty over every public building and every military outpost and naval vessel. "We need more flags, Betsy," they tell her. "Lots more."

It's a great story that provides a simple answer to the question: Who made the first American flag? Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence that it ever happened.

The Betsy Ross legend comes from one of her grandchildren, William J. Canby, who in 1870 wrote down the story and gave a speech to the Pennsylvania Historical Society based on recollections of family lore. At the time, America was looking forward to the 1876 centennial celebration, fueling an increase in patriotism and interest in stories about the nation's founding. Betsy Ross had been dead for more than 30 years by then.

That's not to say that Canby was lying or that Betsy Ross didn't play some role in the creation of the American flag — it just means there's no way to prove that she made the first flag. There are no records of a flag committee being formed, and some question as to whether George Washington would have been involved or was even in Philadelphia when the fateful meeting supposedly happened, in June 1776 [source: Teachout].

But family stories are an important part of history all the same, and it's unlikely the Ross/Claypoole family would have invented such a story out of whole cloth. Betsy was possibly involved in making early flags in some capacity. But the real story of the Stars and Stripes is more complicated and less certain.

It's impossible to trace the origin of the first American flag to one specific person or event. The familiar 13 stripes with 13 stars over a blue field (known as a canton) in the upper left evolved from naval flags, colonial flags, and various flags of protest and rebellion used by colonists as their anger toward England grew in the years before the Revolutionary War.

Among the many American revolutionary flags were the Washington Squadron (a white flag with a green pine tree), the Gadsden flag (a yellow flag with a rattlesnake and the words "Don't tread on me,") and the Sons of Liberty (a flag with nine vertical stripes of red and white) [sources: Teachout, Homer].

The need for a single flag was recognized as tensions and violence flared at the start of the Revolutionary War. The small American Navy needed its own flag so it wouldn't accidentally be fired upon by allies. In 1776, the flag used was the Grand Union Flag, which looks much like an American Flag, with its 13 stripes, but instead of stars on a blue canton, the canton is simply the Union Jack, a replica of Britain's flag [source: Homer].

At some unrecorded point, the founders decided that having the flag of the enemy they were at war with as part of their own flag was a little odd, so the decision to replace the Union Jack in the canton was made. How the 13 stars in a circle on blue was settled on is lost to history, but there were quite a few variants, including a square of stars and stars arcing over the numerals "76." [source: Teachout].

The Continental Congress signed the Flag Resolution on June 14, 1777, but even then the details of the star pattern were in flux, and no one is quite certain where the idea to use stars at all came from. Theories include the influence of Masonic imagery on the Founding Fathers, or that they were adopted from George Washington's family crest, which does have some similarities to the stars and stripes flag.

The 13 stars in a circle design was gradually accepted as the standard, but even in 1779 there was ongoing debate about the flag's final form. Francis Hopkinson, a signer of Declaration of Independence, claimed to have designed the flag and requested payment for his services from Congress, which was denied, as even at the time they recognized that the specific design was the product of many ideas from many people [source: Williams].

There were many flag-makers in Philadelphia at the time of the Betsy Ross legend. It is certain that she made flags, and possible she made the first one. It's even possible she knew or met George Washington, either through her first husband's family connections or through church events (Washington was also an Anglican, or at least went to an Anglican church). However, it's unlikely he directly visited her to have the first flag made. And while Betsy Ross may have sewn the first flag (a worthy accomplishment itself), even if you believe every word of the legend, it's clear that she didn't design the flag beyond, possibly, changing the stars. That is, as well as we can ever know, the truth of the Betsy Ross legend.

But why did the legend become so firmly entrenched in American consciousness in the first place?

The origin story of the Betsy Ross legend is a lot like the origin story of the American flag. It's a little bit complicated. A lot of different factors went into the creation of the Betsy Ross myth.

Today, it's widely recognized that Betsy Ross's story isn't the literal truth. Modern children's books about her explain both the facts about her life and the uncertainties about her legend. But she still holds an important place in American history, helping people understand concepts like patriotism and national mythology, and standing as an example for the many women and men, unnamed and unknown, who never signed the Declaration of Independence but whose hard work and sacrifice built the foundations of the United States.