Flags of the ASB
The ASB first felt the need to adopt a flag in 1878 upon the tenth anniversary of the first modern Parliament. The chief minister at the time, William Walker, had a flair for the dramatic and worked to establish the beginning of a Boreoamerican national identity. The turtle represents Hah-nu-nah, the Iroquois name for the mythical giant turtle on whose back the North American continent rests. The turtle had been used in government seals for some thirty years by then, but the flag was a much more visible public symbol of the confederation and its emerging nationhood. Green was chosen as the main color not just to represent the land, but also as a symbol of unity. Green was a color not associated with any of the major powers within the ASB, local or foreign. A number of state flags already used green in this way to represent neutrality or unity.
This is the set of flags I have designed, adapted and stolen for different parts of the confederation. (Click for full resolution.)
This is the set of flags I have designed, adapted and stolen for different parts of the confederation. (Click for full resolution.)
Themes
Color gives some hint to the history of some of the states. Red often represents England, blue France. Orange for the Netherlands can be seen in the New Netherland flag. The gold and red of East Florida and East Dominica come from flags used by Spain. The purple color represents wampum, and where it appears it symbolizes both Iroquois influence and friendship in general. Green has come to represent neutrality and the Confederation itself, since it was not associated with any of America's colonial powers.
Crosses are a common symbol on these flags. A red cross on white comes from England, and a white cross on blue comes from the old French merchant flag. Christiana's gold cross on white is based on the flag of Sweden. The many cross flags in the region probably influenced the design for Poutaxia, which features a cross in the colors of Iroquoia.
The colonial flag of New England, still used by the Dominion of New England, also provided the template for the three republican states: Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts Bay. It also influenced the old naval ensign of Virginia, which served as the basis for the flag of Bermuda. New England's square canton provided the design for the Cayman Islands.
Lower Virginia's striped flag is the origin of four other state flags, all of which were either once part of Virginia or influenced by it. Upper Virginia's green and white stripes come from a cavalry variant of the flag, while Bermuda's white and blue stripes, with a red canton, are from a naval variant. Bermuda also replaced the original rattlesnake with a local venomous creature, the Portuguese man o' war. Watauga's striped flag originates with a unit of Wataugan militia who fought under Virginian commanders; the blue diagonal comes from another militia flag. The Turks and Caicos flag, designed in the early twenty-first century, uses a striped design to recall its Virginian heritage.
The fleur-de-lis is associated with states formerly part of Louisiana. It had been the symbol of the French royalty, and when the colony of Louisiana declared independence following the French Revolution, it adopted the fleur-de-lis to represent its opposition to the new regime in Paris. Later it was seen to represent Louisiana and the French-speaking culture of the Mississippi valley more generally, and most of the states that resulted from its breakup use it in their flags. These include the Arques, Illinois, Lower Louisiana, and Upper Louisiana.
Heraldry is important in the designs of several state flags. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Saybrook, and the Vineyards simply fly the banners of arms of their founding proprietors. Christiana has a design that suggests the Penn arms. East Acadia's flag similarly suggests the arms of the Bonaparte family. The arms of three medieval European states - the Kingdom of Navarre, Duchy of Brittany, and Duchy of Normandy - appear in the flag of St. Pierre. Both New Scotland and Plymouth fly banners of the arms issued by their founding countries. Properly speaking, Rhode Island's anchor is not a coat of arms, but a heraldic badge used as a seal; and it also forms the main symbol on the flag.
Crosses are a common symbol on these flags. A red cross on white comes from England, and a white cross on blue comes from the old French merchant flag. Christiana's gold cross on white is based on the flag of Sweden. The many cross flags in the region probably influenced the design for Poutaxia, which features a cross in the colors of Iroquoia.
The colonial flag of New England, still used by the Dominion of New England, also provided the template for the three republican states: Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts Bay. It also influenced the old naval ensign of Virginia, which served as the basis for the flag of Bermuda. New England's square canton provided the design for the Cayman Islands.
Lower Virginia's striped flag is the origin of four other state flags, all of which were either once part of Virginia or influenced by it. Upper Virginia's green and white stripes come from a cavalry variant of the flag, while Bermuda's white and blue stripes, with a red canton, are from a naval variant. Bermuda also replaced the original rattlesnake with a local venomous creature, the Portuguese man o' war. Watauga's striped flag originates with a unit of Wataugan militia who fought under Virginian commanders; the blue diagonal comes from another militia flag. The Turks and Caicos flag, designed in the early twenty-first century, uses a striped design to recall its Virginian heritage.
The fleur-de-lis is associated with states formerly part of Louisiana. It had been the symbol of the French royalty, and when the colony of Louisiana declared independence following the French Revolution, it adopted the fleur-de-lis to represent its opposition to the new regime in Paris. Later it was seen to represent Louisiana and the French-speaking culture of the Mississippi valley more generally, and most of the states that resulted from its breakup use it in their flags. These include the Arques, Illinois, Lower Louisiana, and Upper Louisiana.
Heraldry is important in the designs of several state flags. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Saybrook, and the Vineyards simply fly the banners of arms of their founding proprietors. Christiana has a design that suggests the Penn arms. East Acadia's flag similarly suggests the arms of the Bonaparte family. The arms of three medieval European states - the Kingdom of Navarre, Duchy of Brittany, and Duchy of Normandy - appear in the flag of St. Pierre. Both New Scotland and Plymouth fly banners of the arms issued by their founding countries. Properly speaking, Rhode Island's anchor is not a coat of arms, but a heraldic badge used as a seal; and it also forms the main symbol on the flag.
Allegheny
Allegheny's flag resembles that of Iroquoia not just to show the historic connection between the two states, but also because both are based on physical belts of wampum. Iroquois delegates presented it to assembled leaders from the Allegheny towns at the Congress of 1817 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The ceremony marked the creation of the first state government for Allegheny, and it followed several years of negotiation among the Congress's member states. Allegheny remained theoretically subject to Iroquois sovereignty for thirty more years, though its government mostly acted without any deference to Iroquoia. The wampum design was first flown as a flag in 1839 to commemorate the opening of a new state capitol building. The belt still hangs in the state legislative chamber. It combines symbols representing mountain peaks and the joining of hands.
Arques
The Arques uses a fleur-de-lis as its main symbol, like most of the states that historically were part of Louisiana. The single lily simply represents the unity of the state.
Assiniboia
The flag dates to the trade conflicts of the 1810s and 20s, when it was carried by Métis auxiliary forces. Its symbolism is uncertain. Most often it is said to be two conjoined circles representing the combination of the White and Indian worlds. It may instead derive from earlier indigenous iconography. But regardless of its original meaning, the symbol itself has become indelibly associated with the Métis people. It started to appear throughout the Assiniboia colony in the 1880s, a time when a local consciousness was forming in opposition to heavy-handed Hudson's Bay Company rule. A red flag came to stand for Métis nationhood under the English crown, while a blue flag stood for complete independence. Assiniboia became a state in 1889 as a loyal English dominion under the red flag. In 1898 it abolished the monarchy and accordingly switched to blue.
Bahamas
The Bahamian flag combines two vexillological sources: the ensigns of English ships and the menacing flags used by pirates. The piratical founders of the state - who always considered themselves, more or less, to be loyal privateers of the true king - used a variety of symbols on their flags. Besides the iconic skulls and bones, the Bahamian pirates used hourglasses and a variety of weapons such as swords, daggers and pikes. These last ones proved somewhat more respectable than the others and remained in use after the state moved on from piracy. The three daggers have been said to represent the Bahamas, Maryland, and the loyal Jacobite community in Europe - though originally the number may have been chosen merely for the design. The flag also follows an older style of ensign, making the English cross one-ninth rather than one-fourth the area of the flag: this helps to distinguish it as a Jacobite rather than a standard English ensign.
Bermuda
The flag of Bermuda comes from an old naval flag of Virginia, which in turn comes from the revolutionary flag of Lower Virginia. Virginia's navy replaced the blue and red stripes with blue and white to make them stand out better at sea, then moved the red color to a canton. Bermuda, being a former island possession of Virginia, adopted this naval ensign for itself, replacing Virginia's rattlesnake with a local venomous creature, the Portuguese man o' war.
Canada
The Canadian flag is based on the old French merchant ensign, which became the most common flag of the state under the Napoleonic Kingdom of New France. In each corner is a maple leaf, Canada's ubiquitous local symbol. The flag came into use in the late nineteenth century.
Carolina
Carolina's flag features a palmetto and a crescent moon. Besides being a local plant, the palmetto became a patriotic symbol during the War of Independence, when its wood reinforced the fort at Charleston and withstood a barrage from rebel privateers. The crescent too is said to come from gorgets on the uniforms of Loyalist soldiers.
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands adopted a flag only after joining the ASB in 1881. As a loyalist state, it chose a design based on the Dominion of New England, using the square canton with a Cross of Saint George and leaving out the red part of the ensign. Where New England uses a pine tree, the Caymans use a sea turtle, both a prominent local animal and traditionally a major source of food on the islands. It is the ASB's only square flag.
Cherokee
The Cherokee flag, known as the Flag of Peace, goes back to time immemorial. Historians are not even sure if it was created before or after the coming of the Europeans. It depicts the seven stars of the Big Dipper, each with seven points. The number seven, the number of traditional Cherokee clans, has deep symbolic significance to the nation. A separate Flag of War, red with white stars, is still used by the state militia.
Chicasaw
The intertwined colors red and white represent war and peace in the iconography of many of the southern nations. On the Chicasaw flag the colors are in balance to remind the nation's leaders to carefully tend to both peace and war, not neglecting either. The spiral is a traditional symbol representing wind, breath, the human lifespan, and the survival of the nation over many lifespans. The two circles on either side represent the two traditional divisions of the nation.
Choctaw
The imagery of the Choctaw flag is a simplified form of the motifs worn on a traditional Choctaw sash, or isht vskufvchi. These sashes are major symbols of authority and group identity, and the spiral symbolism has a long history in the region, also appearing in the flag of Chicasaw above. The flag has three spirals to represent the three traditional divisions of the nation, East, West, and South.
Christiana
A flag combining symbols for Sweden and Pennsylvania first appeared in the wars of the first decade of the nineteenth century. Christianer forces fought alongside regulars from Sweden and Pennsylvania and flew a flag to reflect this. Originally the black and white Penn banner appeared in the canton of the Swedish cross. This two-color design was later introduced by the Swedish State Herald. Together with a crown and Christiana's four animal symbols, this design also constitutes the state coat of arms.
Cuba
Cuba's flag dates to its independence from Spain in the early 19th century. The key represents the island's historic role as the "Key to the Americas." The red center stripe represents both the land of Cuba and the red blood of patriotism. The blue on either side represents the sea that surrounds the island.
Dakota
For its central design Dakota uses a medicine wheel, a major cultural symbol throughout the Plains region. Its four spokes and colors primarily represent the four cardinal directions, but they have also been taken to represent different peoples, totemic animals, forces of nature, or aspects of the human psyche. Behind the medicine wheel is a green and white bicolor that suggests both the ASB's confederal flag and the wide prairie landscape.
East Acadia
East Acadia chose this flag after restoring the Principality in 1849. Its starting point is the French Tricolore. The star represents the Virgin Mary, patron saint of Acadia. The colors are then tilted diagonally to suggest the Bonaparte family shield.
East Dominica
A horizontal tricolor of red, white and gold became East Dominica's flag in 1834, when French occupation ended and the state became a Principality under the House of Parma. The monarchy was intended as a concession to the Legitimist faction, who longed for a restoration of Spanish rule. The flag, with its Spanish colors, was an attempt to please the same group. The Principality collapsed just ten years later; the Republic turned the tricolor sideways and offered a new interpretation of its symbolism. Now the three colors officially stand for the three ships of Columbus: red for the Pinta, white for the Niña, gold for the Santa Maria.
East Florida
East Florida historically was a self-governing realm of the Spanish Crown, a unique status within the empire not unlike that of the English Dominions. And like them, its flag comes from the cross of the mother country. The red saltire is a simplified form of the Cross of Burgundy. The background is the less-common yellow color to make the connection to Spain even more obvious. The single star represents the state's autonomy, a symbolism also seen on the flag of West Florida.
Huronia
Huronia's flag reflects its history as a former province of Canada. It has the same blue color and maple leaf symbol. The image of a leaf in a pentagon was introduced in the mid-twenthieth century and almost certainly was chosen for stylistic reasons; nonetheless it has become a popular and distinctive symbol of the state. Its five sides are often explained as representing the five waters that form Huronia's boundaries: Ontario, Erie, Huron, Wendake (Georgian Bay), and the Ottawa River, with the pentagon's inner edge representing the vaguely pentagonal Lake Toronto (Simcoe) at Huronia's center. The flag's redesign to incorporate the pentagon symbol makes this one of the ASB's newer state flags.
Illinois
Illinois adopted a modified version of the Louisianan flag when it broke away from Louisiana and achieved self-government in 1828. A few years later, this became the official design. Besides the historic connections to France and Louisiana, the lilies represent stalks of maize growing at the side of a river - the universal pattern of settlement in the state until the second half of the nineteenth century.
Iroquoia
The ancient symbol of the Five Nations still serves as the flag of Iroquoia. It's a depiction of a physical belt of wampum, said to date from the foundation of the Haudenosaunee and still preserved in the state capitol. In the center is the Great Tree of Peace. In the state's allegorical foundation story, the Great Peacemaker Deganawida uprooted the tallest tree in Onondaga, and there the Iroquois buried all their weapons and planted a new tree. The white roots of the Great Tree of Peace then stretched out to connect all of the Five Nations. So the tree in the center represents Onondaga, and the four rectangles the other original nations of the Haudenosaunee. Today there are eight nations rather than five, but the flag reflects the original belt of wampum.
Labrador
Labrador only became a state in 1950 and waited 25 years to adopt a proper flag. Its symbolism is simple: white, green and blue to represent the ice, land and waters of the state. The plant represents a twig of black spruce showing two years of growth, the second year more abundant than the first. This represents progress and hope for the future.
Lower Connecticut
Lower Connecticut's flag embodies the contrasts in its history. St. George's cross, a symbol of loyalty to the Crown, is inset with a depiction of the Charter Oak, a symbol of freedom and resistance to royal power. According to legend, colonists hid Connecticut's colonial charter inside a giant oak tree to keep it out of the hands of royal officials.
Lower Louisiana
The three Capetian lilies had been known in Lower Louisiana since the earliest times of French occupation. When Louisianan planters repudiated the Revolutionary regime in order to maintain slavery, they used royalist symbolism, though they did not specifically declare loyalty to the monarchy. In the early Napoleonic era, the Louisianans were brought back into the imperial fold in exchange for legal autonomy and the assurance that they could keep their slave system. By then, the lilies had become a well-known symbol of the colony and remained in semi-official use during the imperial period. The single state of Louisiana broke into three pieces in the later nineteenth century; Lower Louisiana kept the original flag for itself.
Lower Virginia
Lower Virginia and the other states that descend from it reflect a dream of the early Revolutionaries: a confederation uniting all the new republics of Boreoamerica. This dream was eventually realized, but not in the way that they had hoped. Virginia and the other republics did unite eventually, but as the ASB, a much broader confederation than the one that they had envisioned. On the flag, the rattlesnake is a symbol of revolutionary defiance, while the stripes represent unity among the new republics. The number of Anglophone republics was always shifting during the Revolutionary era, so it's not clear exactly which states the nine stripes are supposed to represent, but most likely they are Watauga, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Maryland
Maryland uses a heraldic banner of its proprietary family, the Calverts, Barons Baltimore. The original Lord Proprietor, George Calvert, used only the black and gold checked pattern, representing the Calvert family itself. His son Cecil, the first Lord Proprietor actually resident in Maryland, quartered these with the red and white cross of the Crossland family, which he had inherited through his mother's side. As the Calverts moved to the Jacobite camp and brought their colony along with it, their arms became an important symbol of defiance as the official English symbols became associated with the hated Hanoverian kings. Maryland continued to use the Cross of St. George in some situations, often together with the Calvert arms, but increasingly it was replaced with the cross bottony from the Crossland arms.
Massachusetts
The flag of Massachusetts Bay is a simple modification of the old flag of colonial New England (still used as the flag of the Dominion states to the south of Massachusetts). The English red was replaced with Republican blue, the English cross was removed, and the tiny pine tree in the corner was enlarged to fill the entire canton of the flag.
Muscoguia
In the late eighteenth century, some groups within the still-disunited Muscoguia began using a flag combining a cross and a sun with a face. Its symbolism is not totally clear. The flag is connected to the power struggle between different factions of the Muscogui, many of them supported by different European powers. Groups using this flag were variously associated with Spain, England, and even the Bahamas. The flag saw a lot of use at sea, as a number of ships with varying levels of legal legitimacy registered as Muscogui privateers. The flag was associated with rivals of Alexander Hoboi-hili-miko McGillivray, the chief credited with unifying Muscoguia. But after McGillivray's death, it came to be associated with the whole nation. Its final form was established by around 1850.
New England (Dominion)
The Dominion of New England uses one of the oldest flags in the ASB. Different versions of it were in use throughout the seventeenth century, and its form was codified by law in the 1720s. It is an old-style English Red Ensign with a tiny pine tree in the corner. It has proved to be an enduring symbol of Yankee identity. The five Loyalist states of the Dominion still fly it alongside their state flags; while three New England republics all still use flags based on its overall design.
Newfoundland
A tricolor of green, white and rose is the modern form of a nineteenth-century religious flag used by Newfoundland's Catholics. The original flag was a verticlal tricolor, and its colors had religious significance whose precise meaning is debated and uncertain. As Newfoundland came to embrace its own nationhood, the tricolor came to represent the entire island and lose its religious associations. The colors were re-interpreted to stand for the principal ethnic groups that made up the island's population: green for the Irish, white for the French, rose for the English. When it was adopted as the official flag of the Dominion, the colors were turned from vertical to horizontal to avoid confusion with the French Tricolore: France still actively controlled fishing along the French Shore and its ships were a frequent sight around Newfoundland, so the possibility for confusion was real. The first official flag also had a Cross of Saint George in the canton as a symbol of loyalty to England. The cross was controversial and was used inconsistently for many years. A law in the mid-20th century removed it permanently, resulting in the present-day flag of Newfoundland. The English cross alone is still often flown in Newfoundland, especially by Protestants and supporters of conservative parties.
New Hampshire
The flag of New Hampshire is noticeably similar to that of Massachusetts Bay. For all their rivalry during the colonial era, New Hampshire and Massachusetts became firm allies upon Independence. For many years they flew the same flag, blue with a pine tree in a square white canton. New Hampshire switched to a green flag in the middle of the 19th century.
New Netherland
New Netherland's flag uses the colors of the Dutch Prinsenvlag. The two diagonal blue stripes represent the North (Hudson) and South (Delaware) Rivers.
New Scotland
New Scotland's flag comes from a grant of arms made for the colony in 1625. It is emphatically Scottish, reversing the colors of the Scottish saltire and placing the Lion and Lilies of Scotland on an inescutcheon. The arms were placed on a banner as far back as the seventeenth century, and since 1772 this has been the only official flag of the state.
Ohio
Ohio's flag depicts a wampum belt, a symbol of peace that is also a feature of the the flags of Iroquoia, Allegheny and Poutaxia. Green suggests neutrality among the major states (which tend to use a lot of red or blue), and it also represents fertile land and all that. Unlike Iroquoia and Allegheny, this belt of wampum was created at the same time as the flag depicting it. Both were unveiled at the opening of Ohio's first modern legislature in the mid-nineteenth century.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania still uses the Penn family arms as its flag, a nod to the Proprietor who still has a big office in the Capitol and who remains an important figure in the state. The simple black and white design is ubiquitous throughout the state as both an official symbol and a sign of Pennamite identity.
Plymouth
The flag of Plymouth is based on its colonial seal. In the original, in each quarter an Indian person knelt against a landscape background and held up a burning heart. The imagery reflected the religious mission of the early colony. It remained in use long after the province had ceased to be exclusively Calvinist. The flag uses the heart symbols while leaving out the human figures and landscapes. A version of it was first flown in 1820, the bicentennial of the founding of Plymouth. It was a time of many public celebrations and renewed interest in the Pilgrim Fathers that helped to build Plymouth's modern identity as a free and Loyal state. It was officially adopted some years later by act of the General Court of Plymouth.
Poutaxia
Poutaxia's flag represents interweaving belts of wampum, a symbol of the alliance of different White, Indian, and Mixt peoples who created the state. The number four is sometimes said to represent the four states that once claimed land in the state (New Netherland, Iroquoia, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut), but originally the design was simply geometrical. It may have been influenced by the cross motifs of many of Poutaxia's neighbors.
Rhode Island
The anchor, symbol of hope, has been the emblem of Rhode Island since its very earliest days under Roger Williams. It's probably an allusion to the Book of Hebrews: "This hope we have as an anchor for the soul." As an independent republic, Rhode Island featured a number of different flags, most of them white with a blue anchor. When the state, with some reluctance, returned to the Dominion of New England, the flag switched from republican blue to English red. A small Cross of St. George also was added to the canton, muted and understated to reflect the state's political climate at the time.
St. John's Island
The flag of Saint John's Island primarily symbolizes unity. Three oak leaves joined at the stem stand for the island's multiple waves of colonists - principally the Acadian French, Scots, and Yankees, but officially the three leaves stand for no particular groups. The confederal green represents affiliation and peace. The northern red oak is the state's official plant symbol, perhaps a response to the iconic maple of Canada and pine of New England. Oak leaves, either singly or triply, can be seen all over as a symbol of the island.
St. Pierre and Miquelon
The ship on the flag of St. Pierre and Miquelon represents Jacques Cartier's Grande Hermine. The three smaller banners at the hoist represent the Kingdom of Navarre (the historic homeland of the Basque people), Brittany, and Normandy. The bulk of the islands' population descend from those three regions. It's fitting that the smallest state of the confederation has the most elaborate flag.
Saybrook
Saybrook quarters the arms of its two founding proprietors: William Fiennes, Viscount Saye and Sele, and Robert Greville, Baron Brooke. The proprietorship of these two founders is generally remembered as a disastrous time that brought the colony to the brink of failure; but their names lived on, as did their coats of arms.
Seminol
The colors black, white, red, and yellow have been important to many Indian nations; see for example the medicine wheel in the flag of Dakota. Seminol has made ample use of them for centuries. The state had a variety of flags in these colors throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, before adopting this configuration as the official one. The stripes have been interpreted in a variety of ways: tribes, nations, regions, animals. The state's three official plants - the black, white, and red mangroves - are based on the flag, rather than the other way around.
Turks and Caicos
The new flag of Turks and Caicos began as an unofficial symbol. In a time of rapid rapid growth thanks to tourism, it provided a new focus for identity, as well as a nice bit of branding. Its symbolism is multi-layered. The striped design reflects the islands' past as a possession of Virginia, but the stripes are wavy as befitting an island territory. There are seven stripes for the seven populated islands. The aquamarine represents the seas around the islands: they are in the same shallow banks as the Bahamas, resulting in the characteristic bright aqua color to the sea. The yellow stripes call to mind sunlight shimmering on the water, representing a new dawn for Turks and Caicos. There are two of them, one for the Turks islands and one for the Caicos. The white stripe in the center represents peace and friendship among the islands and between the islands and their neighbors. It also resembles mounds of salt raked up from an evaporation pool, recalling the industry that drove the Turks and Caicos for most of their recorded history. The flag became a prominent political symbol during the "Aquamarine Revolution" of 2016, when the islanders demanded statehood. As soon as this was achieved three years later, it was the natural choice as the flag of a new state.
Upper Connecticut
Lower Connecticut's flag features the Charter Oak, so Upper Connecticut could choose no symbol more fitting than an acorn: a new shoot of the Oak planted in the west. Early versions of the flag featured crude acorns on plain fields, or on English flags. The modern form was established in the early 19th century. The Cross of St. George makes an appearance; it represents links with New England as much as with Old England, and was an attempt to conciliate the state's Loyalist minority. The green, white, and red come from regimental colors of the early militia.
Upper Country
The Pays d'en Haut flies a modification of the old French merchant flag, which served as a flag for New France and was also adopted by Canada. The green cross in the center represents the land, surrounded by four blue quarters for the state's four Great Lakes: Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie.
Upper Louisiana
Upper Louisiana places the fleur-de-lis of Louisiana at the confluence of two rivers, which stand for the Mississippi and the Missouri.
Upper Virginia
A variant of the Virginian flag that used green instead of blue was used at some of the earliest fortified settlements west of the mountains, what became Upper Virginia. UV adopted this alternate coloration when it became a state in 1850. A few decades later the state specified that the swallowtailed cavalry guidon would serve as the official state flag as a symbol of the importance of horsemanship to the state's history and culture. It is the ASB's only non-rectangular flag.
Vermont
The flag of the Vermont Republic dates to the days following the Revolution, when hope was high that the newly independent English-speaking states would form a confederation together. The project to unite them never got off the ground due to the competing interests of the various states; in the end they were to unite, but as members of a larger confederation that included the French, Dutch, Indians, and others of the continent. There were many flags of the era that used stars to represent the independent states. Vermont's has ten, the maximum number of states that could potentially have joined a "confederation of the republics". The stars are arranged as Cygnus, the Swan, a northern constellation meant to symbolize the nobility of citizenship. The ten states are: Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Plymouth, Pennsylvania, Christiana, Virginia, and Watauga.
Vineyards
The Vineyards is another state to fly the banner of arms of its former proprietor. The Mayhew family, landowners and missionaries, received the islands in a grant during the 17th century. Governor Caleb Mayhew renounced his hereditary rights in the 1780s, but the state always considered itself to be the family's creation and continued using his arms as its main symbol.
Watauga
Watauga's flag is a combination of two militia flags from the age of the Wars of Independence. John Sevier had adopted for his regiment a striped flag based on the model of Virginia. The buff and green colors came from the men's uniforms and were chosen to distinguish the flag from Virginia's red and blue. Other local militia defending the passes into Watauga began using a plain blue flag inscribed with the word Liberty. These different militia - those who went off to fight in the east versus those that stayed to defend the home front - were sometimes rivals in the postwar years. Combining the two flags symbolized unity among all citizens. The word disappeared in later years, leaving only a plain blue diagonal. The flag is affectionately known as "the Sash and Stripes."
West Acadia
West Acadia looked to East Acadia for its design, making its most prominent symbol a gold Star of Mary in a blue sky. But the style of star comes from Mi'kmaq traditional art, reflecting the much larger Indian presence in the west. Below the blue are the confederal colors, white and green. Besides the usual symbolism of peace and multiculturalism, for West Acadia they represent the full dignity of statehood, which West Acadia achieved later than its neighbors.
West Dominica
The flag of West Dominica was made in the time of the Revolution. It was created by removing the white from the flag of France - the political and racial symbolism was clear, but for many years the state maintained a connection to republican and then Napoleonic France. The red and blue colors switched places a few years after West Dominica cut all ties with France in 1833, mainly so it would look less like the French flag when hanging from a topmast.
West Florida
In 1833, some of the English settlers in West Florida declared their own republic, flying a blue flag with a single white star. Some Spanish republicans led by the famous agitator Fermín O'Regan joined and eventually co-opted the Engish movement, pushing for a united trilingual republic that would be free of all the colonial powers. They began to fly a flag with three stars, the third added in the hope of drawing support from local French.