Betsy Ross
“When we view the flag, we think of liberty, freedom, pride, and Betsy Ross. The American flag flies on the moon, sits atop Mount Everest, is hurtling out in space. The flag is how America signs her name.”
— Independence Hall Association
Elizabeth Griscom Ross was the eighth of 17 children who, after her schooling, apprenticed for John Webster, a popular upholsterer. It was during this apprenticeship that she learned how to make and repair many things and became an extremely skilled upholsterer herself. It was also here that she fell in love with her husband, John Ross, who was also an apprentice at the time.
After the two of them married, they opened their own upholstery business. Their business was so successful that in 1774 George Washington was one of their clients. Sadly, in 1775, after three years of marriage, John Ross died. But Betsy kept the shop open, and one day, in the summer of 1776, a group of gentlemen visited and made a request that would forever make her a crucial part of American history.
In 1870, William Canby, her grandson, told the story of this day for the first time by sending a paper titled, The History of the Flag of the United States, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In this paper, he wrote:
“Sitting sewing in her shop one day with her girls around her, several gentlemen entered. She recognized one of these as the uncle of her deceased husband, Col. George Ross, a delegate from Pennsylvania to Congress. She also knew the handsome form and features of the dignified, yet graceful and polite Commander in Chief, who, while he was yet Colonel Washington had visited her shop both professionally and socially many times, (a friendship caused by her connection with the Ross family) they announced themselves as a committee of congress, and stated that they had been appointed to prepare a flag, and asked her if she thought she could make one, to which she replied, with her usual modesty and self reliance, that ‘she did not know but she could try; she had never made one but if the pattern were shown to her she had not doubt of her ability to do it.’”
When Ross saw the design for the flag, she saw room for improvement. One such improvement, according to her grandson, was changing the six-point stars in the design to five-point stars. When she suggested the five-point stars, the committee said that would be too hard to accomplish. “‘Nothing easier’ was her prompt reply and folding a piece of paper in the proper manner, with one clip of her ready scissors she quickly displayed to their astonished vision the five-pointed star; which accordingly took its place in the national standard.”
The thing that stands out the most in this astonishing story is that when a task that she had never done before was asked of her, she replied with “modesty and self reliance, that ‘… she had not doubt of her ability to do it.’” This was a woman who, in the midst of the tragic loss of her husband, had the strength and ability to continue running their business — and she did it successfully. She believed that her voice mattered, her opinion mattered, so much so that she was not afraid to critique a design brought to her by George Washington.
This is the B.E.A.U.T.Y. that is found in Betsy Ross — her confidence. For some time, in the home of Betsy Ross that can still be visited today, her family Bible was displayed. It has since been removed, but the fact that this item has been cherished all this time could be a symbol of how much her faith was a part of who she was. This comes as no surprise because the confidence she possessed is one that can only be gained through the security of knowing who we are in Christ. When we know who God says we are, when we find our identity in Him, when we are confident of the gifts he has given us, we are equipped with a kind of boldness that not even the President of the United States can intimidate.