All about flags

Joe Shoemaker
Lambertville
    Flags often offer insight into American history. The beloved “stars and stripes,” for example, is one of the symbols of the United States.
   Other flags pass through history hardly ever known. One flag of such significance is the Bucks of America flag. The Bucks of America was an African American patriotic military company during the American Revolution.
   This flag was presented by John Hancock (the governor of Massachusetts at the time) and his son John George Washington Hancock in Boston after the war. The flag shows a leaping buck and a pine tree (symbols of New England) 13 stars in the upper left hand corner and the initials JGWH: for John George Washington Hancock.
   The original flag can be viewed at the Massachusetts Historical Society. A rendition of this flag among countless other national and international flags, can be seen at Humphry’s Flag Co., located on Arch Street (Philadelphia) between 2nd and 3rd streets.