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Pine Tree Flag History

The Pine Tree Flag presents one of early New England’s most recognizable emblems: a green tree standing alone against a white field. Its uncluttered appearance gives the tree, rather than a written slogan, the entire visual emphasis. This particular design does not include the words “An Appeal to Heaven.” It belongs to the wider pine-tree flag tradition and should be distinguished from the related Revolutionary naval designs that carry that inscription.

The pine had an established place in New England imagery before the Revolution. In 1652, the Massachusetts Bay General Court authorized John Hull and Robert Sanderson to strike colonial silver coins in Boston. Their later pine-tree issues placed the tree at the center of a widely recognized colonial design. Colonial Williamsburg preserves a small-planchet pine-tree shilling dated 1652 but actually struck later in the seventeenth century. The coin provides a tangible example of the region’s use of the emblem well before independence.

The tree’s Revolutionary naval history is documented in correspondence from 1775. On October 20, George Washington’s secretary, Joseph Reed, wrote to John Glover and Stephen Moylan about choosing a flag and recognition signal for American vessels. He proposed a white background, a tree in the center, and the motto “Appeal to Heaven,” explaining that floating batteries already used that combination. The letter shows a practical purpose behind the emblem: friendly vessels needed to recognize one another in waters where British warships were operating.

These small vessels formed part of the effort to support Washington’s siege of Boston by intercepting British supplies. The Naval History and Heritage Command’s account of the schooner Hancock describes a vessel hired at Marblehead in October 1775 for that mission. The fleet became known as “George Washington’s Navy.” Its story places the pine-tree tradition among working coastal vessels and improvised wartime operations, rather than treating it simply as an abstract patriotic symbol.

Other contemporary evidence confirms the tree-and-motto combination. A British report of January 1776 described the colors taken from the captured American brig Washington as a white flag with a green pine and the appeal inscription. Massachusetts also prescribed a green pine on white with an appeal motto for its state navy in 1776. Those records establish the historical family of designs, but they do not make every modern rendering of the tree an exact copy of one particular eighteenth-century flag.

The simpler tree-only arrangement has a continuing Massachusetts connection. The Commonwealth’s statutory description of its naval and maritime flag calls for a green pine tree on a white rectangular field, without specifying an inscription. For a historical display, this Pine Tree Flag offers a clear way to explore the relationship between colonial regional identity, Revolutionary maritime service, and a symbol that remained recognizable long after the war.

Historical Sources

• Colonial Williamsburg: Pine tree shilling (small planchet)
• Naval History and Heritage Command: The U.S. Navy’s Jack
• Naval History and Heritage Command: Hancock I
• Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 2, Section 3