The struggle for colonial unity was a battle of great importance for the survival of American freedoms. The poster “Join or Die”, published in 1754, in the Pennsylvania Gazette, was the work of Ben Franklin and was created during the French and Indian War (Document A). It was used to show the importance of colonial unity when the colonies were allied with the British. An American and British victory in the French and Indian War was absolutely imperative. If the French, who were allied with the Indians for this war, had won, then the British would have lost much of their superiority. When victory was won by the British and American forces, the American colonies began to form their own country and gain independence. When the revolution came around the poster was brought back to the public, trying to encourage the colonists to entice the idea of unity.
The great diversity in the New World is also something that boosted American identity. America was a “melting pot” of many different ethnicities and cultures which set us apart from our British counterpart. A lot of the people who lived in the colonies were not English; they were French, Dutch, Jewish, Scots-Irish, Scottish and German. As Crevecoeur wrote in his Letters from an American Farmer, “…individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men…” (Document H). This mixed group of people, when forced to fight for their rights developed a sense of unity along with their unique identity. Now even though they fought against British troops sometimes, the American colonists insisted that they were still