# Crank theory on US flag design

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crank-theory-on-us-flag-design/101863>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 4, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crank-theory-on-us-flag-design/101863 "2002-04-04T21:10:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crank-theory-on-us-flag-design/101863/1 "2002-04-04T21:10:54Z")

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I once saw a map of what’s now the eastern USA that was made around the time of US independence. The borders between some of the colonies / states were extended westwards in straight lines, stretching out into territories which probably had barely been explored by Europeans These states had no real western borders, just straight theoretical northern and southern borders that became irregular near the east coast. The states were coloured in, so the map looked like a set of horizontal stripes. My crank question is: **did these stripes inspire the stripes in the Stars and Stripes?**

It may only have been the Carolinas and Virginia that extended westwards like this, so there were only 3 or 4 stripes, but it was a memorable effect. Was the flag drawn as an “artistic representation” of the map of the nation, as it then stood?

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crank-theory-on-us-flag-design/101863/2 "2002-04-04T22:39:33Z")

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That’s a novel theory. I don’t think it’s true. There have been stripes on flags for a long time.

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**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crank-theory-on-us-flag-design/101863/3 "2002-04-04T22:42:58Z")

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The Crank theory would be that Betsy Ross was from Michigan.

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**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crank-theory-on-us-flag-design/101863/4 "2002-04-05T02:12:54Z")

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The stripes of the American flag were taken from George Washington’s coat of arms.

Argent, two bars gules, in chief, three mullets of the second.

The two red bars on the white field give the look of five alternating stripes.