A man dressed as ‘Uncle Sam’ walks up 5th Avenue during the 102nd annual Veterans Day Parade in New York City, New York on November 11, 2021.
Credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP
This tall man with a white beard, a top hat and a suit in the colors of the flag – blue white red with stars – is the symbol of america par excellence. So much so that we can speak of the United States by saying “the country of Uncle Sam”. Yet it all started a bit by chance in 1812.
During the second war of independence between America and England, American soldiers received crates of meat marked with the acronym “US” for United States and whose supplier was a butcher named Samuel Wilson. In homage to this good old Sam who allows them to feed themselves between two cannon shots, the soldiers divert the initials “United States” into “Uncle Sam”. Uncle Sam later became an icon in the country for his participation in the war effort before becoming a comic book character. Who at first is chubby and jovial with a big belly!
The illustrator and caricaturist Thomas Nast will transform it in the 1870s after the death of the famous American president
Abraham Lincoln. Hence that emaciated face and that typical Lincoln goatee. Subsequently, Uncle Sam is used during military propaganda campaigns to recruit soldiers. This is the famous poster created in 1917 and used during the Second World War where we see him pointing his finger with the slogan “I Want You for US Army”, which means “I want you for the US military”, which popularizes it all over the world. In addition to being a propaganda hero, Uncle Sam then becomes a hero of pop culture that we see for example in The simpsons and who is pumped merrily to create Captain America, he too, a symbol of the American fight for freedom.
>> Oh yeah? From Monday to Friday, Florian Gazan responds in one minute to all the essential, existential, sometimes completely absurd questions that cross your mind. Very useful or totally useless knowledge to shine in society, absolutely incredible anecdotes to share, amazing stories to tell. And each time, you will say to yourself “Ah yeah?”. An RTL Originals podcast.
