The flag has a bright yellow background and features front and center a stylized depiction of a North American rattlesnake. The snake is coiled and ready to strike with its rattler shaking in warning. Under the snake plainly written in large type for all to see it is the implicit warning: Don’t Tread on Me.

If there ever was a flag of warning this is that flag. It is a flag that warns those in power that the people are in some way unhappy as the flag recalls a time when the colonists rose up and threw out their oppressive British rulers.

Far from being just bravado, there is a grain of truth in this flags design. It is true that when settlers arrived in North America they were confronted by a new and vicious animal, never before encountered. It was an animal that took the lives of many careless Europeans as they walked through the new American woods. That animal was the rattlesnake and it has no equal found anywhere else in the world.

While native Americans had learned to live with and even make use of the rattlesnake, the Europeans with their thick boots quickly adopted the tactic of leaving rattlesnakes alone. It was recognized that was best to “not tread” on this new animal. Because of is unique association with the North American continent, the rattlesnake was nearly chosen as the symbol for the new American nation after the bald eagle.

The Gadsden flag gets its name from Colonel Christopher Gadsden, one of the founders of the U.S. Navy. Colonel Gadsden created this design most likely based on the bright yellow drums and rattlesnake designs in use by the first marine units. He presented the first Don’t Tread on Me flag to the first commander-in-chief of the Navy in 1775.

He also presented a copy of the same flag to the South Carolina legislature. During the later civil war South Carolina occasionally used this flag to proclaim its independence.

More recently the Don’t Tread on Me flag has become very popular amongst the Tea Party protesters. They use the flag to warm the government not too suppress their constitutional rights and to show a desire for smaller and less intrusive government.

This flag is unique in that it is held its meaning an emotional value for the entire life of the United States from birth to present day.