Widely considered to be America’s first political cartoon, “Join, or Die” was created as an influence to colonial citizens during the French and Indian War. Benjamin Franklin, the creator of “Join, or Die”, featured his cartoon on May 9, 1754 in the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. Franklin’s cartoon proved to be rhetorically effective by his usage of symbolism, application to all three points on the rhetorical triangle, and his appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos. During Franklin’s era, there was a myth that a severed snake would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset. The cartoon depicts the early American colonies as a snake divided into eight segments, each segment symbolized a colony. Franklin understood that
