The Evergreen Tree: When a Pine Became a Warning Label for Tyrants
Long before Americans argued about flags on social media, our ancestors managed to make a tree politically dangerous. Britain reserved many of New England’s great white pines for the Royal Navy—even trees growing on colonial lands—marking them with the King’s Broad Arrow. The pine became a symbol of something much bigger: ownership, natural rights, independence, and the stubborn belief that free citizens had both the right and responsibility to defend their country. That’s why an evergreen ended up beneath the words “AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN.”
