Most people grow up thinking the colors of the American flag have official meanings baked into the design from day one. The truth is more interesting. The 1777 law that created the flag said nothing about what red, white, and blue stood for. The meanings most Americans know today came five years later, and they were written about a different symbol entirely.
★ Quick Facts
| Red | Hardiness and valor |
| White | Purity and innocence |
| Blue | Vigilance, perseverance, and justice |
| Source | Charles Thomson's 1782 report on the Great Seal |
| Official flag meaning | Never legally defined by Congress |
What the Colors of the American Flag Mean Today
Ask ten Americans what the colors of the flag stand for and most will give you some version of the same answer. Red is for the blood of the brave. White is for purity. Blue is for justice or loyalty. That answer is right, but the source is not what most people think.
The accepted meanings come from a 1782 report written by Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Continental Congress, when he presented the final design of the Great Seal of the United States. His exact words about the seal's colors were these. White signifies purity and innocence. Red represents hardiness and valor. Blue signifies vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
Over the next two centuries, Americans applied those same meanings to the flag by association. No act of Congress ever formalized them. They stuck because they felt right, and because the flag and the seal share the same three colors.
The 1777 Flag Resolution: What It Actually Said
The first American flag was created by a one-sentence law. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution. Here is the whole thing.
The Flag Resolution of 1777
Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.
Notice what is missing. There is no explanation of why the stripes are red and white, or why the field is blue. No symbolism, no meaning, no poetry. Just a description of the finished product.
Historians who have studied the early records agree on this point. The men who designed the first flag left no written record of what the colors were supposed to represent. They borrowed the red, white, and blue palette from British flags and from the Sons of Liberty flag that had been flown during the early years of the Revolution. The colors were familiar. That was enough.
Where the Color Meanings Actually Come From
Five years after the Flag Resolution, Congress was still trying to finalize a design for the Great Seal of the United States. The job had been kicked around since 1776 and gone through three failed committees. Charles Thomson took over the project in June 1782 and finished it in a week.
When Thomson presented his design, he included a short written report describing the symbolism. This is the part people often mix up with the flag. His report said the following about the colors.
| 1 | White. Purity and innocence. |
| 2 | Red. Hardiness and valor. |
| 3 | Blue. Vigilance, perseverance, and justice. Thomson also called blue the color of the chief, meaning the top band of a heraldic shield. |
Congress adopted the seal on June 20, 1782. The report became public record. Over time, people started quoting Thomson's symbolism whenever they talked about the flag, and the meanings fused with the banner in the national imagination. That is how we got here.
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What George Washington Said About the Colors (And What He Probably Did Not)
You have probably seen this quote floating around online, usually with a patriotic image behind it.
Attributed to George Washington
We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing Liberty.
It is a beautiful line. Unfortunately, historians cannot find it in any of Washington's own papers. It first shows up in a book called The Official History of the Flag by Robert Allen Campbell, published in 1890, more than 90 years after Washington died. No earlier source has ever been located.
That does not mean Washington had nothing to do with the flag. He had input on the early design, and the story of Betsy Ross sewing a flag for him has its own history. But the specific quote about the stars and stripes representing liberty is not his. It is an invention from the late 1800s that stuck because it sounded like something he should have said.
The Stars and Stripes: What They Represent
While the colors never got a formal meaning, the elements of the flag did. This part is settled.
The blue field in the top left corner has a name. It is called the canton, or sometimes the union. The part of the flag with the stripes is the field. The side that attaches to the pole is the hoist. The flying edge is the fly. If you ever need to describe a flag without sounding like a tourist, those are the words for it.
Why Red, White, and Blue in the First Place?
The Continental Congress did not pull these colors out of thin air. Red, white, and blue were already loaded with meaning in the 18th century for a few reasons.
First, they were the colors of the British Union Jack. That may sound backwards for a flag of independence, but American colonists had grown up under British identity. When they broke away, they kept the color vocabulary even as they rejected the politics. It was a statement that said we are using your own symbols against you.
Second, red, white, and blue were common on colonial militia flags during the Revolution. The Sons of Liberty had a red and white striped banner. The Bennington Flag and the Grand Union Flag both used the same three colors. By 1777, the palette was already associated with the American cause.
Third, the colors printed well and showed up clearly from a distance. On a battlefield or at sea, you needed a flag that could be identified through smoke, fog, and glare. Red, white, and blue at high contrast did that job better than almost any other combination.
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1782 Year Charles Thomson wrote the only official American document that assigns meaning to red, white, and blue. |
Common Mistakes People Make About the Flag Colors
MISTAKE 01
Calling the meanings "official"
No federal law defines what the colors of the flag mean. The meanings from Thomson's seal report are widely accepted but have no legal weight.
MISTAKE 02
Quoting Washington on the flag colors
The famous "we take the stars from Heaven" quote has no verified source before 1890. It is a late 19th century invention, not a Washington original.
MISTAKE 03
Saying red stands for blood
Red stands for hardiness and valor in Thomson's report. The "blood of patriots" interpretation is poetic but post-colonial. It gained popularity during the Civil War and World War I, not at the founding.
MISTAKE 04
Confusing the flag with the seal
Thomson was describing the Great Seal when he assigned meaning to red, white, and blue. Those meanings were adopted for the flag by public imagination, not by Congress.
MISTAKE 05
Assuming the exact shade is random
The official shades are Old Glory Red (PMS 193 C) and Old Glory Blue (PMS 282 C). These were standardized by the federal government in 1934 so the flag would look the same on every pole, building, and uniform.
Knowing the real story does not take anything away from the flag. If anything, it adds to it. The meanings we attach to red, white, and blue were not handed down by the founders. They were chosen by generations of Americans who saw the flag and decided what it would stand for. That is a pretty American way to build a symbol.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the colors red, white, and blue mean on the American flag?
Red stands for hardiness and valor. White stands for purity and innocence. Blue stands for vigilance, perseverance, and justice. These meanings come from Charles Thomson's 1782 report on the Great Seal and were adopted by tradition for the flag.
Did the Founding Fathers officially assign meaning to the flag colors?
No. The 1777 Flag Resolution only described the physical design. It did not assign any symbolic meaning to red, white, or blue.
What does the blue part of the flag represent?
The blue canton holds the stars that represent the 50 states. The color blue itself stands for vigilance, perseverance, and justice, based on Charles Thomson's 1782 description of the Great Seal.
Why are there 13 stripes on the American flag?
The 13 stripes represent the 13 original British colonies that declared independence in 1776 and became the first states of the Union.
What are the official shades of red and blue used on the flag?
The official shades are Old Glory Red (Pantone 193 C) and Old Glory Blue (Pantone 282 C). These were standardized by the federal government in 1934.
Did George Washington really explain the meaning of the flag?
Probably not. The quote often attributed to him first appeared in an 1890 book and has no earlier source in Washington's own papers or contemporary records. Historians consider it apocryphal.
If you want to read more about where the Stars and Stripes came from, our guide to the history of the American flag from 13 stars to 50 walks through every major flag design from 1777 to today. And when you are ready to put everything you know about the flag into practice, our complete U.S. Flag Code guide covers how to display it the right way.
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The colors of the flag also show up in the text of the Pledge of Allegiance, which is recited to the flag itself. If you want the full history and etiquette of the pledge, start there.
For the full story of how this country chose its symbols, see our deep dive on the bald eagle and how it became America's national symbol. Different angle, same founding-era thread.
While you are at it, here is why the bald eagle is America's national bird and what every symbol on the Great Seal means.
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Fly It Like You Know What It Stands For The story behind the colors is good. The flag you fly should be too. |
