Sons of Liberty, 13 stripe3x5'

"The Constitution Flag"

 The Constitution stated that when nine states ratified it, it would go into effect over those nine states.

New Hampshire was the ninth state. Call this the Constitution Ratification flag if you'd like.

I call it "The Constitution Flag"

PS: The next time someone asks you how many original states we had maybe you should answer "9". Nine states gave us a nation. No other states were required. Once New Hampshire ratified, the process to elect a congress and a president had begun. If no other states had ratified, we would have had a nation of nine states.

As it was, the day George Washington was sworn in, we were a nation of 11 states, NOT 13. On that day, North Carolina and Rhode Island were independent republics. They had rejected The Constitution and were NOT part of the new United States of America.

Be the first one on your block to fly the the new "first flag of the United States". People will ask you what it means, and you'll get to tell the story.

By the way, George Washington is the only President to have been elected unanimously, twice! However, in the first election he only carried ten states. Why?

You already know now that North Carolina and Rhode Island were not part of the United States so they could not vote....

New York could not get its act together in time! Feuding factions could not agree on how to chose presidential electors and New York missed the deadline to take part in the election. Talk about voter suppression! New York suppressed its own vote.

Hey, New York's vote to approve The Declaration of Independence did not come through until July 19, 1776. We are the Great Late State of New York!

The next time you are at a dinner party, amaze your friends by asking "Who can tell me why not a single New Yorker voted for George Washington in the first Presidential election?" They'll think you are kidding but you'll get to tell the story.

So what is the deal with Sons of Liberty flags? Why are there two versions? As I look around the Internet, I find more explanations than you can shake a stick at. Some say that the nine stripe version came first. The nine stripes are variously explained. A common explanation is that they represent the nine colonies that attended the Stamp Act Congress of 1765. Alternatively, "The four white and five red stripes were symbolic of '45' the number of the pamphlet published in 1763 by the English civil-rights activist John Wilkes, whose influence on the American revolutionary movement was second only to Tom Paine's 'Common Sense.' ... Later, the symbolism of '9' came to apply to the nine states represented at the adoption of the Constitution on September 17, 1787 - and also the nine states which ratified it into existence." Source: Mastai, The Stars and the Stripes

Wikipedia says that the Sons of Liberty adopted the nine stripe version in 1767, when it was known as the "rebellious stripes flag", but that a thirteen stripe version also became associated with the Sons of Liberty.

I tell you what I have NEVER seen: An explanation how a secret organization even used a flag in the first place. I mean, if you are part of a secret underground organization do you fly its flag from your front door or enter a float in a parade? I don't think so.