On January 9, 1793, French aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America, ascending from Philadelphia's Walnut Street Prison yard before President George Washington and other dignitaries. His hydrogen balloon flight demonstrated the new technology to American audiences and established ballooning as a popular form of public entertainment in the young nation.

Blanchard's American flight inspired early American poets to incorporate aerial imagery into their work, connecting the new nation's aspirations with the literal rising above earthly bounds. The event appeared in patriotic verse linking American independence with human liberation from natural constraints, while also featuring in humorous poems about the bewildered reactions of rural observers.