Brother Jonathan

His too-short pants, too-tight waistcoat and old-fashioned style reflect his taste for inexpensive, second-hand products and efficient use of means.

Brother Jonathan soon became a stock fictional character, developed as a good-natured parody of all New England during the early American Republic.

[2] After 1865, the garb of Brother Jonathan was emulated by Uncle Sam, a common personification of the continental government of the United States.

[4] A popular folk tale about the origin of the term holds that the character is derived from Jonathan Trumbull (1710–1785), Governor of the State of Connecticut, which was the main source of supplies for the Northern and Middle Departments during the American Revolutionary War.

[6] The character was adopted by citizens of New England from 1783 to 1815, when Brother Jonathan became a nickname for any Yankee sailor, similar to the way that G.I.

In 1825 John Neal wrote the novel Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders and had it published in Edinburgh to expose British readers to US customs and language.

Jules Verne included in his 1864 novel The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (French: Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras) a chapter entitled "John Bull and Jonathan", in which British and American members of a polar expedition confront each other, each seeking to claim the newly-discovered island of New America.

A deleted chapter, "John Bull and Jonathan", had Hatteras and Altamont dueling for the privilege of claiming the land for their respective countries.