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This question has no easy answer. To best answer this question we need to first understand the origin of the Betsy Ross' legend.

The Betsy Ross' legend says that in June 1776, General George Washington and a secret committee from the Continental Congress, later identified as George Ross and Robert Morris, assembled to create the first American flag. They went to Ross's upholstery shop, and Washington gave her his sketch. Ross was approached for her skill, as well as her relationship to George Ross, Betsy Ross's uncle who had signed the Declaration of Independence. Ross did not agree with the proposed design of the flag, and she became the mother of our nation's "stars and stripes" by changing Washington's proposed six-pointed star, to a five-pointed star to show American independence. Betsy Ross believed that America should use new imagery, and with one single snip of scissors, she revealed a perfect five-pointed star. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the stars and stripes as the flag of the United States of America. This is the legend, as told by William Canby, grandson of Betsy Ross, at a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1870.

Betsy Ross' told her tale to her grandson, William Canby, when she was eighty years old. William Canby then relayed the tale, as stated above, for the first time in 1870 at a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This being the case, the question as to whether or not Betsy Ross really sewed the first American flag is still being investigated. So, we would need have a clear answer to this question before we can start asking when did Besy Ross sew the American flag (if in fact she did). So what do history tells us about this tale?

Elizabeth "Betsy" Ross helped out her husband in their tailoring and upholstery business until his death in a munitions explosion in 1776. Following John Ross' unfortunate and untimely demise, Betsy stepped up to take on full responsibility for the tailoring business which was why-at least according to American myth-no less than George Washington himself showed up at the tailor store one day in June of 1776. The legend goes that George Washington met with Betsy Ross specifically to discuss a design for the official flag of the country that revolution was to build. Again, according to legend, George Washington wanted a flag made of red and white stripes and thirteen six-pointed stars in a circle to represent the colonies. Betsy, however, talked him out of this by saying that five-pointed stars were much easier to cut. American mythology goes onto say that almost as soon as George Washington's boots hit the front steps, Betsy Ross set about to making that first American flag.

So, is it true, or not? Did Betsy Ross really sew the first American flag?

Well, there are some problems. In the first place, this mythic meeting of giants of American history made it into history books courtesy of the story told by...Betsy Ross. George Washington, on the other hand, never recounted any part of this story. And there's a further problem: Betsy Ross never related the full details of this story until she was dying, and then it was to her grandson William Canby, who was a mere lad of eleven at the time. Further complicating matters and lending some credence to the fact that the Ross bloodline has some procrastinators in it is that William Canby then did not publicly relate the story told him by granny Betsy for another thirty years. By the time William Canby got around to telling the story of the historical meeting between Betsy Ross and George Washington and the first American flag, almost a century had passed from when this meeting allegedly took place.

There is some written history that makes it easier to divine truth from myth, if not completely mark Betsy Ross as a teller of tall tales. A copy of Washington's itinerary from June of 1776 does place him in Philadelphia around the time this meeting with Betsy Ross supposedly took place. Unfortunately, there is no entry of a meeting with any seamstress. George Washington's diary entry also neglects to mention that he had anything to do with the designing the American flag. And as if that isn't enough, consider that the Continental Congress had never met to discuss designing of a flag. At the time the official flag was known as the Grand Union Flag and it was a kind of bastardization of the Union Jack, complete with red and white stripes. Washington was known to be okay with the general design of Grand Union Flag and had never given any indication he was interested in such a full scale redesign as legend has it.

So, did Betsy Ross really sew the first American flag? Probably not. But it is a nice legend none the less.

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13y ago
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11y ago

Betsy would often tell her children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends of the fateful day when three members of a secret committee from the Continental Congress came to call upon her. Those representatives, George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross, asked her to sew the first flag. This meeting occurred in her home some time late in May 1776.

She didn't make the flag. This is a story her grandson made up in 1870. Congress gives credit to Francis Hopkinson who designed the flag. The first flag was made for the navy in 1776 and it was a basic British flag with stripes. The second flag had stars where the British flag had a cross.

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11y ago

Betsy Ross made the flag because George Washington asked her to.

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14y ago

she finished on may 15, 1777

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13y ago

She made the flag in may of 1776

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13y ago

On May,15th 1777

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11y ago

she finished the flag in 1777

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14y ago

1776

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Q: When did Betsy ross finish the American flag?
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