France and the United States: Borrowed and Shared National Symbols Page: 51
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full of life and laughter. Even with a musket in hand he was not a great
warrior, but he was fiercely independent and ready to fight for his
freedom (Fischer 220).
Fortunately, the image of Yankee Doodle is still intact today, and thanks to his
song, his name has not been relegated to American History book exile. Other
symbols of his kind were not so lucky as to remain unchanged and unforgotten.
One such case is Brother Jonathan.
Brother Jonathan
Most modern Americans have probably never heard of Brother Jonathan,
though he was actually more well-known during the early days of the republic
than Yankee Doodle (Fischer 221). Brother Jonathan began as a mid-
seventeenth century "term of affectionate contempt for a country bumpkin" used
by city-dwellers. The name was also used by British Regulars to refer to the New
England militia "in a way that implied both kinship and condescension" (Ibid.).
The name spread across the colonies with the war, and thus became a common
term referring to any and all Americans. "British troops began to speak
collectively of Americans as Jonathan, much as American troops in Vietnam
called the Viet Cong Charlie and Allied infantry in World War II referred to
Germans as Jerry" (Op. Cit. 222).
Brother Jonathan, the figure, started out as being purely regional, a
representation of an average New Englander, but became a national icon after
1815. Numerous written works and theatrical productions included him as a
character representing America (mostly in a satirical manner). Though he was51
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Crawford, Katlyn Marie. France and the United States: Borrowed and Shared National Symbols, thesis, May 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67971/m1/55/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .