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DIRECTIONS: Read the historical background and view each document. Answer the questions that follow the document on the Answer Sheet.

ALBANY CONGRESS, 1754

By Benjamin Franklin
Cartoon in the Pennsylvania Gazette
May 9, 1754

Historical Background:

Representatives of seven colonies met in Albany to secure the allegiance of the Iroquois Confederacy, and to unite the colonies in matters of defense. Benjamin Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union, which provided for a congress of delegates representing all the colonies. England rejected it because she felt that a union of the colonies would make them too strong. The colonies rejected it because each was unwilling to give up any of its powers of local government to a grand council.
          This was America’s first political cartoon, which appeared in Franklin’s newspaper shortly after the Albany Congress. The drawing was based on the popular superstition that a snake that had been cut in two would come to life if the pieces were joined before sunset. The drawing immediately caught the public's eye and was reproduced in other newspapers.

1. What does each segment of the snake represent?

2. What does the order of the segments illustrate?

3. What does the entire snake represent?

4. What does the caption mean?

5. Which statement best describes the message of the political cartoon?

a. To kill a snake, you must cut it up

b. The colonies must unite together to be strong or they will perish

c. If a snake grows back together, the colonies will be strong