What do these other letters in the cartoon represent?

The letters next to the snake are abbreviations of each colony in geographical order, running south to north (South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England).

Explanation:

valentina tereshkova

soviet cosmonaut valentina tereshkova became the first woman to fly to space when she launched on the vostok 6 mission june 16, 1963. valentina tereshkova was the first woman to go into space. in 1963, she spent almost three days in space and orbited earth 48 times in her space capsule, vostok 6.jan 22, 2018

the correct answer is batering