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{{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] โ 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]]. ==History== [[File:CanadianAmericaRelationsCartoon1886.gif|thumb|upright|left|"Mrs. Britannia" and her daughter "Miss Canada" discussing whether "Cousin Jonathan" aspires to "marriage" with Canada, in an 1886 political cartoon about fears of American aspirations to bring Canada into the Union]] The term dates at least to the 17th century, when it was applied to [[Puritan]] [[roundheads]] during the [[English Civil War]].<ref name="Hart1995">{{cite book|author=James D. Hart|title=The Oxford Companion to American Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompanionthart|url-access=registration|edition=6th.|date=12 October 1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-506548-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompanionthart/page/91 91]}}</ref> 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 [[King David|David]] after the death of his friend [[Jonathan (1 Samuel)|Jonathan]], "I am distressed for thee, my brother [[Jonathan (1 Samuel)|Jonathan]]" (2 Samuel 1:26). As [[Kenneth Hopper]] and [[William Hopper (politician)|William Hopper]] put it, "Used as a term of abuse for their ... Puritan opponents by [[Royalist]]s during the [[English Civil War]], it was applied by British officers to the rebellious colonists during the [[American Revolution]]".<ref>Hopper, Kenneth and William, ''The Puritan Gift: Triumph, Collapse and Revival of an American Dream'', I.B.Tauris, 2007, p.63.</ref> A popular folk tale about the origin of the term holds that the character is derived from [[Jonathan Trumbull]] (1710โ1785), Governor of the State of [[Connecticut]], which was the main source of supplies for the [[Departments of the Continental Army#Northern Department|Northern]] and [[Departments of the Continental Army#Middle Department|Middle Departments]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. It is said that [[George Washington]] uttered the words, "We must consult Brother Jonathan," when asked how he could win the war.<ref>{{cite book | author = Gould, Dudley C | title= Times of Brother Jonathan: What He Ate, Wore, Believed in & Used for Medicine During the War of Independence| publisher = Southfarm Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-913337-40-0|pages=9โ10|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTGZ7ur2t30C&dq=times+of+brother+jonathan&pg=PA9}}</ref> That origin is doubtful, however, as neither man made reference to the story during his lifetime and the first appearance of the story has been traced to the mid-19th century, long after their deaths.<ref name="OED">The first printed usage of "Jonathan" as a generic name for a representative Yankee in the Oxford English Dictionary (second edition) is from 1816.</ref> The character was adopted by citizens of New England from 1783 to 1815, when Brother Jonathan became a nickname for any [[New England|Yankee]] sailor, similar to the way that [[G.I. (military)|G.I.]] is used to describe members of the U.S. Army. The term "[[Uncle Sam]]" is thought to date approximately to the [[War of 1812]]. ''Uncle Sam'' appeared in newspapers from 1813 to 1815, and in 1816 he appeared in a book. In 1825 [[John Neal]] wrote the novel ''[[Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders]]'' and had it published in [[Edinburgh]] to expose British readers to US customs and language.<ref>{{cite thesis | last = Richards | first = Irving T. | year = 1933 | title = The Life and Works of John Neal | degree = PhD | publisher = [[Harvard University]] | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | url = http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990038995990203941/catalog | oclc = 7588473 | pages = 694โ695}}</ref> The emblem had been developing for decades as a minor self-referential device in American literature, but saw full development in this novel into the personification of American national character.<ref>{{cite book | last = Morgan | first = Winifred | title = An American Icon: Brother Jonathan and American Identity | publisher = University of Delaware Press | location = Newark, New Jersey | year = 1988 | isbn = 0-87413-307-6 | page = 143}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Kayorie | first = James Stephen Merritt | editor-last = Baumgartner | editor-first = Jody C. | chapter = John Neal (1793โ1876) | page = 88 | title = American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture | publisher = ABC-CLIO | location = Santa Barbara, California | year = 2019 | isbn = 978-1-4408-5486-6}}</ref> The weekly newspaper ''[[Brother Jonathan (newspaper)|Brother Jonathan]]'' was first published in 1842, issued out of [[New York City|New York]]. As editor in 1843, Neal used it to argue for Brother Jonathan to be the national emblem of the US.<ref>{{cite thesis | last = Richards | first = Irving T. | year = 1933 | title = The Life and Works of John Neal | degree = PhD | publisher = [[Harvard University]] | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | url = http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990038995990203941/catalog | oclc = 7588473 | page = 1031}}</ref> ''Yankee Notions, or Whittlings of Jonathan's Jack-Knife'' was a high-quality humor magazine, first published in 1852, that used the stock character to lampoon Yankee acquisitiveness and other peculiarities. It, too, was issued out of New York, which was a rival with neighboring [[New England]] before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. It was a popular periodical with a large circulation, and people both inside and outside New England enjoyed it as good-natured entertainment. Such jokes were often copied in newspapers as far away as California, where natives encountered Yankee ships and peddlers, inspiring [[Yankee]] impersonations in comedy burlesques. [[Jules Verne]] included in his 1864 novel ''[[The Adventures of Captain Hatteras]]'' ({{langx|fr|Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras}}) a chapter entitled "[[John Bull]] and Jonathan", in which British and American members of a polar expedition confront each other, each seeking to claim the newly-discovered island of [[Newfoundland (island)|New America]]. The land is named by Captain Altamont, an American explorer, who is first to set foot on it. A deleted chapter, "[[John Bull]] and Jonathan", had Hatteras and Altamont dueling for the privilege of claiming the land for their respective countries.<ref>{{cite book |title=Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography |last=Butcher |first=William |author2=Arthur C. Clarke |author2-link=Arthur C. Clarke |year=2006 |publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press |isbn=978-1-56025-854-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/julesvernedefini00butc/page/156 156]โ157 |url=https://archive.org/details/julesvernedefini00butc |url-access=registration }}</ref> Around the same time, the [[New England]]โbased [[Know Nothing Party]], which ''Yankee Notions'' also lampooned, was divided into two campsโthe moderate Jonathans and the radical Sams. Eventually, Uncle Sam came to replace Brother Jonathan, and the victors applied "Yankee" to all of the country by the end of the century, after the "[[Yankee]]" section had won the [[American Civil War]]. Likewise, "[[Uncle Sam]]" was applied to the Federal government.<ref>Note: Brother Jonathan fought the enemy "John Bull" during the War of 1812; so also did the North again fight ''Johnny'' (for example, [[Johnny Reb]] meant a Confederate soldier). However, the song "[[When Johnny Comes Marching Home]]" was sung on both sides.</ref> [[Uncle Sam]] came to represent the United States as a whole over the course of the late 19th century, supplanting Brother Jonathan.<ref>"[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/uncle+sam Uncle Sam]", Dictionary.com; accessed 2013.09.18.</ref> According to an article in the 1893 ''[[The Lutheran Witness]]'', Brother Jonathan and [[Uncle Sam]] were different names for the same person: "When we meet him in politics we call him Uncle Sam; when we meet him in society we call him Brother Jonathan. Here of late Uncle Sam ''alias'' Brother Jonathan has been doing a powerful lot of complaining, hardly doing anything else."<ref>December 7, 1893 "A Bit of Advice" ''The Lutheran Witness'' p. 100</ref> ==Legacy== The phrase "We must consult Brother Jonathan" appears on the [[Diploma|graduation certificates]] of [[Yale University]]'s [[Trumbull College]], also named for Trumbull.<ref>[http://trumbull.yalecollege.yale.edu/about/history "Trumbull College History"].</ref> Some members of the [[Jonathan Club]], a private social club headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, believe their club was named after Jonathan Trumbull or "Brother Jonathan". However, the club was formed in 1895, and the true inspiration for its name is lost to history. Between 1891 and 1901, US socialist [[Daniel De Leon]] wrote more than 300 editorials as dialogues between "Uncle Sam" (a class-conscious worker who espoused the doctrines of the [[Socialist Labor Party of America|SLP]]) and "Brother Jonathan" (a worker lacking in class-consciousness).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/pdf/usbj/index.htm|title=Uncle Sam & Brother Jonathan|last=DeLeon|first=Daniel|author-link=Daniel DeLeon|publisher=New York Labor News|website=Marxist Internet Archive|access-date=July 29, 2022}}</ref> ==See also== * [[John Bull]] * [[Marianne]] * [[Johnny Reb]] * [[Uncle Sam]] * [[Columbia (name)|Columbia]] * [[Yankee]] ==References== {{Reflist|30em}} ==External links== {{Commons category|Brother Jonathan}} * [http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/january/brother-jonathan.htm 1862 Harper's Weekly Brother Jonathan Cartoon] * [https://archive.org/details/divertinghistor00paulgoog ''The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan''] - complete 1827 text w. illustrations {{American tall tales}} {{New England}} {{National personifications}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:New England]] [[Category:Personifications of country subdivisions]] [[category:American folklore]] [[category:Tall tales]] [[category:American mascots]] [[Category:National personifications]]
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