Americans love the story of Betsy Ross's making the nation's first official flag. For almost 140 years now, the tale of the plucky, practical Philadelphia seamstress has occupied a comfortable niche in the country's patriotic pantheon alongside the stories of Paul Revere, the Minutemen, and Valley Forge.
Ross is so beloved and so deeply embedded in the nation's memory that somehow it seems unpatriotic, if not vaguely treasonous, to cast doubt on her story. The truth, however, is that nobody can prove that Betsy Ross had anything to do with the first official Stars and Stripes.
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