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12 American Flag: The Story of Old Glory

VITAL FIGURE: George Washington The commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, George Washington was born

February 22, 1732. As a young man, Washington worked as a surveyor, even though he had little or no formal schooling. Later, he became a tobacco farmer. During the French and Indian War, he fought with the British Army. Washington’s public opposition to unpopu- lar British polices helped him win election as a Virginia delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress the following year. In 1775, Congress placed Washington in charge of the Continental Army when fighting broke out between the British and citizens of Massachusetts.

After the end of the Revolutionary War, Washington was elected the country’s first president in 1789. He left office in 1797 to retire to his estate in Mount Vernon, where he died on December 14, 1799.

In the more than 225 years that have passed since the colonists declared themselves free of British rule, the American flag, with its red and white stripes and white stars neatly arranged on a blue background, has become perhaps the most recognizable symbol of freedom and democracy in the world. The flag represents not only the struggle by colonists for independence, but also the determination of settlers to push the frontier boundaries. It has also come to represent the thousands of American lives lost in battle in the country’s history.