National Treasures - Exclusionary Flags

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NATIONAL TREASURES
American Exclusionary Flags
ZFC2512 16 Star U.S. "Grand Luminary" Northern Abolitionist Exclusionary Flag. This is a 16 star Exclusionary Grand Luminary Stars and Stripes made during the period from 1850 to 1858. These abolitionist flags featured stars only for the free states, excluding the 15 slave states from the total represented. Read more
ZFC3085 15 Star U.S. Southern Exclusionary Flag, 1850's. This 15 star 13 stripe cotton flag is machine sewn and thus excludes it from belonging to the period of 1795 to 1818, when 15 star flags were current. Furthermore, flags from that period correctly bore 15 stripes. Read more This page from the July 1844 Anti-Slavery Almanac draws attention to the US sectional strife. This strife would come to be represented in Exclusionary Flags before secession became reality. See page 58 of The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict.
ZFC0022 17 Star U.S. Northern Abolitionist Exclusionary Flag, 1858 - 1859. Flags bearing 17 stars and 13 stripes were never an official flag of the United States; however numerous surviving examples confirm both their existence and use. Read more ZFC0630 18 Star U.S. Abolitionist Exclusionary Flag. This flag flew on the ship United States when it departed Boston harbor in 1860 on the Hayes Arctic Expedition. Only 18 stars, arranged in two concentric rings around a central star, representing union, despite the fact that 33 stars should have been represented in the canton. Read more
ZFC0126 19 Star U.S. Northern Abolitionist Exclusionary Flag, 1861. There never was an official 19 Star flag; the 15-star 15-stripe flag served throughout 1795-1818 even though five new states (Tennessee 1796, Ohio 1803, Louisiana 1812, Indiana 1816 and Mississippi 1817) joined the Union during that period. Read more