John Birch
Bob Dylan references a certain Betsy Ross in his 1962 satirical song “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues”, initially an outtake from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album.
In the song, the narrator, a paranoid conspiracy theorist hunting for “Reds” (i.e. communists), claims to have investigated the American flag and discovered:
“That ol’ Betsy Ross. She was a Red!”
The reference serves as a comedic punchline to mock the absurdity of McCarthy-era paranoia, when senator Mccarthy was leading a Senate committee focused on identifying and outing communists who lived in the US.
By suggesting that the iconic patriot who supposedly sewed the first flag and put red stripes in it, was actually a Communist, Dylan highlights the ridiculous lengths to which fear-mongers would go to find subversion. The line relies entirely on the audience’s familiarity with the Betsy Ross legend; without the myth of her creating the flag, the joke that she “planted” the red stripes as a Communist symbol would not function.
The Myth of Betsy Ross
The Betsy Ross myth is the widely held, but historically unverified belief that Betsy Ross designed and sewed the first American flag in 1776 at the request of George Washington and a congressional committee. While Ross was a real Philadelphia upholsterer who made flags for the Pennsylvania Navy during the Revolutionary War, historians find no credible contemporary evidence that such a (secret) congressional committee existed, that Ross met with Washington to discuss its design or that she created the first national flag
In short, the most significant evidence against the story is the silence of the historical record from the Revolutionary era. In fact historical records point to another origin story of the flag.
No Primary Sources: There are no letters, diaries, newspaper articles, or official government records from 1776 or 1777 that mention Ross creating the first flag or meeting with George Washington.
Missing Committee Records: The story relies on a secret committee (Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross) visiting Ross in June 1776. However, no minutes or logs from the Continental Congress or the Continental Army record the formation of such a committee or the commissioning of a flag at that time.
Late Origin: The story was not made public until 1870, nearly a century after the alleged event, when Ross’s grandson, William J. Canby, presented it based on family oral tradition. Historians regard oral histories recorded 90+ years after the fact as unreliable without corroboration.
The Francis Hopkinson Claim
In contrast to the Ross legend, there is direct documentary evidence attributing the design to Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
The 1780 Bill: In May and June 1780, Hopkinson submitted a formal bill to the Continental Congress requesting payment for designing “the Flag of the United States of America,” along with other government seals and currency.
Congressional Acknowledgement: While Congress ultimately rejected his request for payment (a “Quarter Cask of the public Wine”) on the technicality that he was not the only person consulted and was already a public servant, they never disputed his claim that he designed the flag. This official correspondence serves as the only contemporary written record linking a specific individual to the flag’s design.
Perpetuate the myth
It so happens that trying to deduce anything from the fact that a nation prefers to perpetuate a myth about the origin of its flag, is unlikely to be fruitful. Accordingly most folks are happily sticking with Betsy Ross and the myth.