DID YOU KNOW???
Uncle Sam the cartoon figure was inspired by a real man named Samuel Wilson, though none of the cartoon drawings actually look like him.
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Samuel Wilson owned a business as a meat-packer in New York in the early 1800s. He was known to be a nice, fair, friendly man with a good sense of humor. Because of his kind, honorable personality, his friends and customers gave him the nickname of 'Uncle Sam', the way your friends might call you by a nickname.
During the war of 1812, he was contracted by the U.S. government to inspect and provide meat to the soldiers. Wilson stamped 'U.S.' on all the meat containers that were approved for the troops to eat.
Although the 'U.S.' stamp stood for United States, soldiers made a joke that the government meat came from Uncle Sam, and even started calling themselves Uncle Sam's soldiers.
After the war ended, people still thought of Uncle Sam as the symbol of anything having to do with the U.S. government.
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