Christopher Gadsden

Famous ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ flag created by Charleston’s Christopher Gadsden 250 years ago

By Mike Hebb Special to The Post and Courier

Published Mon Dec 29, 2025 5:00 AM EST

CHARLESTON — Many know the flag with the yellow field and coiled rattlesnake emblazoned with the words “Don’t Tread On Me.” Few outside of South Carolina, however, know its true origins. While this flag often is seen today, its roots date back 250 years ago, to the Revolutionary War.

The Gadsden Flag was created by Christopher Gadsden . He was a true firebrand of the Revolution, and one of the most-influential Patriots from South Carolina before and during the war for independence. In Charles Town, Gadsden was the leader of the groups The Sons of Liberty and the Mechanics, who were instrumental in protesting many Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts which would eventually lead to revolt. Quite often these groups met at “The Tree of Liberty,” a large live oak located near present day Calhoun Street on the peninsula.

A successful merchant, Gadsden began building a large wharf in the 1760s along the Cooper River where Calhoun and Laurens streets end today. He updated the wharf several times following the Revolution. The site eventually became a main point of arrival in the international slave trade.

When the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, Gadsden was part of a three-man delegation sent to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. He gave a rousing speech to the congress stating: “There ought to be no England men, no New Yorker, known on the continent, but all of us American.”

When the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, Gadsden warned the Patriots that more oppressive acts were to follow. Parliament had declared that their authority was the same in America as in Britain. More acts did follow, most notably the Tea Act of 1773. Gadsden organized protests and meetings when the tea arrived to Charles Town on Dec. 3, 1773 — 13 days before the tea shipment arrival in Boston.

Gadsden also was a member of the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775-76. He left the Congress prior the Declaration of Independence to assume military command, including the position of brigadier general in charge of South Carolina’s military.

From 1778 to 1780, Gadsden served as vice president, later called lieutenant governor, of South Carolina. After the fall of Charles Town in May 1780, Gadsden was one of several Patriot leaders to be arrested and exiled to St. Augustine, Fla. While most of those prisoners of war accepted parole, Gadsden refused. That led to him being held in solitary confinement for 42 weeks in the fort called Castillo de San Marcos until Gadsden and other Patriots were released to Philadelphia in 1781.

While Gadsden was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1775, Congress established the American Navy on Nov. 28. Gadsden was one of seven members of the Marine Committee that was responsible for outfitting the Navy. Commodore Esek Hopkins had been named the commander-in-chief of the Navy, and on Dec. 5, 1775, Gadsden presented Hopkins with a flag to serve as the personal standard for his Continental Ship Alfred . This wasn’t the first rattlesnake symbol used for the war, nor was it the last. But the Gadsden Flag would be the first enduring image of American resolve and freedom — and continues to be to this day.