Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is a well known image in United States culture. He is the embodiment of what we hold dear - Truth, Liberty, and the American Way. He gained the most popularity in recent history during World War II, as a way of helping convince people to do their patriotic duty and sign up with the military. But, his origin goes even further back.

General folklore holds that one Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from New York, would stamp his boxes of supplies destined for the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. The soldiers joked that rather than standing for "United States", it really stood for "Uncle Sam" Wilson.

As an image, Uncle Sam first appeared in 1852. There were numerous uses of the name and image throughout the rest of the 1800s, and Uncle Sam was used as a recruiter also during WWI. Use seems to have dropped off as patriotism waned throughout the 20th century, though. Some posters were used during the VietNam war, but recent history shows a large amount of parody versions of Uncle Sam (Mad Magazine, Donald Duck, etc).

Now it appears that Uncle Sam is being used more and more as a negative image - pointing a gun instead of his finger at the viewer. Being depicted as dead album covers by Ice Cube and as anti-war imagery against the Iraq War.

The latest and greatest being a black Uncle Sam, most likely in reference to President Barack Obama. So does that mean the iconic image of the US should now be referred to as "Uncle Bam"?