Betsy Ross - Created Flag of America

Betsy Ross

Through the timeline of history, many important things happen that brought people to where we are today. While Americans recognize and celebrate achievements such as the Declaration of Independence or the victory of the Revolutionary war. One person's contribution can define the course and meaning of history. When people think of their countries flag, they think of liberty, freedom and pride, but for the Americans they think of Betsy Ross. It isn't a surprise that Betsy Ross became has become one of the most remembered figures in American History. Ross' contributions to creating the flag became a legend through the trends of changes in women's lives, a growing patriotic love for the American flag, and the advertisement industry made from the flag.

Betsy Ross was born in 1752 in Philadelphia, and attended the Quaker schools where she learned needlework. When she married John Ross who was Anglican, she was expelled for marrying outside of the friends meeting, but was still able to achieve in beginning an upholstery business together, dedicated to her needlework skills (About, 2008). John Ross was killed in January 1776 on militia duty. Betsy then had to take over her own property, keep up the upholstery business with a new project in making the flags for Pennsylvania as well. Betsy was a widow, and a single mother where she only tried to make a living by a traditional woman's occupation, a seamstress. It made a change in women's lives that any woman could be independent and additional social changes towards the population of women.

Obviously the flag of any country is important to its citizens. A growing patriotic love for the American flag has been around since it was first created. Over the years it has also changed a lot. Betsy Ross is best known for making the American flag. It is known to have all started when Ross received a visit from George Washington, Robert Morris and her husbands uncle, George Ross. At that meeting she demonstrated how to cut a 5 point star if the fabric was folded correctly. On June 14th, 1777, American congress resolved what they wanted to the American flag to resemble, and the committee requested for Betsy so create it, surely she accepted the offer (ThinkQuest, 1999). Today, the flag of the United States doesn't look the same as it did in the 1700's and changed over the years because of the change in the country. If it was never created by Ross, then it would of never been able to change and the flag may have been completely different and the love for it may not of formed.

The first flag of America that Betsy Ross created had thirteen stripes of red and white, which stood for the thirteen colonies that were becoming states. The flag also has thirteen stars which also represented the thirteen colonies becoming states. The stars were five-pointed, and they were white on a blue background. In the modern