Steven Knowlton

This paper uses communication theory to study the flag culture of Tennessee. The author applies concepts such as semiotics, pragmatic unity, and visual synecdoche to the examination of flags and flag-derived logos used throughout the Volunteer State.

Thomas A. Sebeok, a leading semiotician, developed a useful typology which the author uses to analyze national and subnational flags, exploring them as signals, icons, indexes, and symbols and using extensively illustrations.

Covering a little-known subject, this article catalogues the use of flags within slave uprisings in the New World in the nineteenth century. The author demonstrates how the slave banners were typically modelled on the flags of their former masters but also often incorporated African symbols in an attempt to indicate physical freedom as well as the attempt to signal the former slave groups’ equality with their former oppressors.

A leading semiotician, Thomas A. Sebeok (1920-2001), developed a useful typology which the author uses to analyze national and subnational flags, exploring them as signals, icons, indexes, and symbols and using extensively illustrations.

The popularity of logos derived from the Tennessee flag can be explained by its obvious and relevant symbolism, but also by the phenomenon of pragmatic unity through which the Tennessee flag evokes the Confederate flag, as well as by the phenomenon of visual synecdoche, which allows observers to associate the three-star element with the entire flag and its associated meanings.