The Appeal to Heaven Flag: The History and Meaning of the Pine Tree Banner

A white field. A green pine. Four words that are a prayer and a warning at once. Before the Stars and Stripes existed, this was a banner America sailed under — and every thread of it means something.

The phrase: John Locke's last resort

"An appeal to heaven" wasn't coined in 1775. It comes from the English philosopher John Locke, whose Second Treatise of Government (published 1689) shaped how the founding generation understood their rights. Locke's argument, compressed: when a people have been wronged and every earthly court has failed them — when there is, in his words, "no appeal on earth" — they may make their appeal to heaven. To God Himself, the judge above every throne.

It is not a slogan of rebellion for its own sake. It's the opposite: the claim that men answer to an authority higher than government — and that when government forgets it, the appeal goes up, not out.

The tree: New England's pine

The eastern white pine was New England's pride and the Crown's prize. The tallest, straightest pines were marked with the King's broad arrow and reserved for Royal Navy masts — your tree, on your land, claimed by a king an ocean away. Resentment over the mast laws ran hot enough to boil into open defiance in the Pine Tree Riot of 1772, years before the first shot at Lexington. By the time the Revolution opened, the pine already stood for New England liberty.

The fleet: Washington's cruisers, autumn 1775

In the fall of 1775, before the United States had a navy, George Washington commissioned a small fleet of armed schooners out of Massachusetts to intercept British supply ships. They needed colors. In October 1775, Washington's military secretary, Colonel Joseph Reed, proposed "a flag with a white ground, a tree in the middle" — and for a motto, An Appeal to Heaven.

Massachusetts took up the pine-tree flag for its own state navy in 1776. The banner flew on American water before the Declaration was signed — a fleet of farmers and fishermen sailing against the strongest navy on earth, under a prayer.

What it means

Put the pieces together and the flag says something no modern slogan can: we have exhausted every petition; our cause now rests with God. It's humility and resolve in the same breath — the acknowledgment that rights come from the Creator, not the Crown, and the willingness to stand behind that claim with everything.

That's why we put it on a shirt. Not as a costume of 1775, but as the same conviction carried forward: God first, then the country built to let men worship Him freely.

Wear it the way it was made: American

Our An Appeal to Heaven tee carries the pine on a shirt that honors the flag's own standard — 100% US-grown cotton, spun, knit, cut, and sewn in America (the Bayside 5100), printed to order. A banner born of American defiance shouldn't be printed on an imported blank. Here's the dirt-to-shirt proof.

Questions people ask

What does "An Appeal to Heaven" mean?

It's John Locke's phrase for the last resort of a wronged people: when no court or king on earth will hear them, they appeal to God. The founders flew it as both a prayer and a declaration that rights come from the Creator.

Who created the Appeal to Heaven flag?

The design was proposed in October 1775 by Colonel Joseph Reed, George Washington's military secretary, for the armed schooners Washington commissioned before the Continental Navy existed. Massachusetts also flew the pine on its state navy vessels.

Why a pine tree?

The eastern white pine was New England's symbol of liberty — the Crown claimed the best pines for Royal Navy masts, and the resentment helped kindle the Revolution.

Go deeper: What does 1765 mean? · What is the semiquincentennial? · Shop The 250th collection