Brother Jonathan

Brother Jonathan is the national personification and emblem of New England. He was also used as an emblem of the USA in general, and can be an allegory of capitalism. The term "Brother Jonathan" probably came into use during the American War for Independence. Brother Jonathan soon became a stock fictional character, developed as a good-natured parody of all New England during the early American Republic. He was widely popularized by the weekly newspaper Brother Jonathan and the humor magazine Yankee Notions. The phrase "we must consult Brother Jonathan" is attributed to Gen. George Washington to celebrate the part that the northern colonies played for independence from Great Britain.

Brother Jonathan was usually depicted in editorial cartoons and patriotic posters outside New England as a long-winded New Englander who dressed in striped trousers, somber black coat, and stove-pipe hat. Inside New England, "Brother Jonathan" was depicted as an enterprising and active businessman who blithely boasted of Yankee conquests for the Universal Yankee Nation.

After 1865, the garb of Brother Jonathan was emulated by Uncle Sam, a common personification of the continental government of the United States.

The term dates at least to the 17th century, when it was applied to Puritan roundheads during the English Civil War. It came to include residents of colonial New England, who were mostly Puritans in support of the Parliamentarians during the war. It probably is derived from the Biblical words spoken by David after the death of his friend Jonathan, "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan" (2 Samuel 1:26) . As Kenneth Hopper and William Hopper put it, "Used as a term of abuse for their Bible-thumping Puritan opponents by Royalists during the English Civil War, it was applied by British officers to the rebellious colonists during the American Revolution".

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