There was. His name was Samuel Wilson (1766-1854) and he was nicknamed Uncle (Uncle) Sam. Wilson was a merchant who supplied meat to the United States Army. As the packaging came with the initials US (from United States), the soldiers said that the letters meant Uncle Sam. The joke spread and the government took the opportunity to make a caricature of the character, who came to represent the United States. “It was used as a symbol of American expansion, encouraging nationalism”, says historian Sérgio Augusto Queiroz Norte, from Unesp. Uncle Sam gained international fame in World War I, when the famous poster with the phrase I Want You was created, calling young people to enlist. In 1961, the US Congress made the expression Uncle Sam official as a national symbol.
