Do you hear of Uncle Sam? Who is Uncle Sam? Where does he come from? What does he look
like? Well, Uncle Sam is not a real person. It was made sometime during the War of 1812 to symbolize
the United States of America. Where does the name come from? No one is really sure, but most people
think he was named after Samuel Wilson.
     Samuel Wilson was born in Massachusetts in 1766. he moved to New York, where he became a
meat supplier(供应商). There, he put meat into barrels(桶)to send to the American government then
to the United States army. The barrels of meat were marked with the letters "U.S." to show that they
came from the United States. One story says that the soldiers jokingly called the meat supplier "Uncle
Sam" to talk about the letters on the barrels. So when people talked about Uncle Sam, they mean "the
American government", because the meat came from the American government.
     Uncle Sam seems to show up just about everywhere today. Some places you might want to look
for him are television, newspapers, magazines, and history books. He has even shown up in cartoons!
The one place you probably won’t see him is at your next family dinner!