Before taking a stand, do your research

Don’t get me wrong. I admire Colin Kaepernick. He’s taken a stand against discrimination and as a result has been blackballed from the NFL.

My admiration for him stems in large part from his incredible generosity. He has given millions of dollars to charitable groups. I do not necessarily agree with his decision to “take a knee” during the playing of the national anthem, but that was the way he chose to express his protest, and we have to respect that.

That said, the line has been crossed, not so much in hate or distrust, but in a lack of education and understanding. Nike, the shoe folks, have had a partnership with Kaepernick for some time now.

To celebrate the Fourth of July,

Nike decided to put the original “Betsy Ross” flag on one of their shoes, but Kaepernick objected, associating it with slavery. Nike caved and cancelled the shoe.

This is the result of not reading history books. Betsy Ross was a true American historical figure worthy of close study. She was born in 1752, and in her late teens, was apprenticed to a Philadelphia upholsterer. She soon had her own shop, making upholstered furniture. She also made flags for the Colonial Navy, along with tents and other heavy-cloth items.

So the story goes, George Washington and two others visited her in 1775 to see if she could sew a flag for the colonial government. His drawing was pretty much what the end product came to be, except that his stars were six-pointed. Ross told him that a five-pointed star was easier to sew, would look better, and she could produce the flag quicker. So the design was agreed on.

It would have red and white strips (the same as our flag today) and the blue field would have a circle of 13 white stars, each representing one of the colonies. That flag remained the official flag of what would become the United States of America until the last years of the century with the admission of three additional states.

From 1776 to 1861, the year in which the Civil War began, there were well over two dozen American flags, most coming with the addition of states.

And, that does not count the flags that were on display prior to the Betsy Ross flag.

Sons of Liberty, Don’t Tread on Me, and the like.

No American flag that I have been able to uncover in the history books or on the internet has ever been associated with slavery. It would be just as ridiculous to associate tri-cornered hats with slavery. After all, those were the hats early American southern plantation owners wore. But wait. So did our second president, John Adams, an ardent abolitionist, and Ben Franklin, also an abolitionist.

Betsy Ross died in 1836. She remained an upholsterer, seamstress, and flag designer until just three years before her death at age 84. By then she was totally blind.

Was she a slave owner or at least sympathetic to slavery? Hardly.

She was raised a Quaker. I doubt that there are any Quakers in American history who supported slavery.

There is no question but that slavery is the darkest stain on the fabric of American history. We can lay slavery at the feet of lots of people, but Betsy Ross is not one of them. The flag story is one of those wonderful yarns that we tell our kids. There is little documentation of the Ross-washington story, but we do know that Ross was a successful Philadelphia business woman. Her story and the story of our first flag should be uplifting to all youngsters, particularly young women. The Betsy Ross flag symbolizes lots of things, but slavery is not one of them.

Sorry Colin. I respect your work, but I’m not with you on this one.

George D. Ellis is a Benton attorney. He can be contacted at gellisinbenton@swbell.net.