Editing Brother Jonathan (section)

{{Short description|Personification of New England}}
{{About|the national emblem of New England|other uses|Brother Jonathan (disambiguation)}}

[[File:Brother jonathan.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Seated white man with too-short striped pants, too-tight vest and jacket, and a top hat|Brother Jonathan from an 1852 political cartoon]]

'''Brother Jonathan''' is the [[National personification#Personifications by country or territory|personification]] of [[New England]]. He was also used as an emblem of the [[United States]] in general, and can be an [[allegory]] of [[capitalism]]. His too-short pants, too-tight waistcoat and old-fashioned style reflect his taste for inexpensive, second-hand products and efficient use of means.

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 (newspaper)|Brother Jonathan]]'' and the humor magazine ''Yankee Notions''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcEcAQAAMAAJ&q=Yankee+notions ''Yankee Notions'' in Google Books.]</ref>

Brother Jonathan was usually depicted in [[editorial cartoon]]s 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.<ref>[http://www.teachushistory.org/files/brotherjontojohnbull.pdf Teach Us History] – Here, "Brother Jonathan" is clearly a representative of a "Yankee", a New Englander, administering pear-juice to John Bull on behalf of Admiral Perry, during the War of 1812.</ref>

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