The “Join, or Die” illustration was one of the first images used to promote unity among the thirteen colonies that would become the United States. The cartoon accompanied a May 1754 essay by Benjamin Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin’s newspaper. At the time, fighting had broken out between the British and French colonists in North America in what would become the French and Indian War (1754–63). This was one theater in a global war, the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), between Britain and its allies and a French-led coalition. The image depicts a snake that has been cut into pieces, presumably by the French and their allies, and each segment of the serpent is labeled as a different colony. At the time, snakes were often viewed favorably as a symbol of renewal and transformation because of their ability to shed their skins. Hence, the snake could be viewed as a symbol of the colonies as they evolved from separate entities into a single, more potent creature. In his essay