The American Rattle Snake

William Richardson|James Gillray

April 12, 1782 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

This satirical print, one of Gillray's earliest, centers on a snake–a popular American symbol before the emblematic stars and stripes were devised for the nation's flag. In 1754 Benjamin Franklin had famously designed a woodcut of a dismembered serpent for the Pennsylvania Gazette, accompanied by the legend "unite or die." After the first American congress of 1774, the New York Journal published an image of a living snake curled around a tree of Liberty, with text that stated "united now alive and free." Gillray's image responds to two American victories that helped to secure the outcome of the Revolutionary War. His text makes it clear that he is commenting on General John Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, New York on October 7, 1777 and General George Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781. The coils of the serpent have forced the troops under the command of these two generals to lay down their flags. Text below states "Two British Armies I have thus Burgoyn'd, And room for more I've got behind." A sign hanging from the reptile's tail reads "An Apartment to let for Military Gentlemen," to suggest that the two defeated generals must now be looking for new lodgings.

Artist

William Richardson|James Gillray

Date

April 12, 1782

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of William H. Huntington, 1883