Wake Wednesday 250 - The British Will Know Who We Are - Penelope Barker 1773 - Edenton Tea Party

Piedmont colonists (including those living in Wake County, now just two years young) lived with a mix of routine frontier hardship and growing political stress as the colony inched toward revolution. Day‑to‑day life was physically demanding and often uncertain. 

With only a few poor roads in and out of the area, travel and trade with the coast and Virginia was limited. They had to produce most everything for themselves and barter for what they couldn't make and hope to bring in a bit of cash if they managed a good bargain with their neighbors. 

They lived in a subsistance economy that required hands-on effort for everything - clearing land, planting seed, tending animals, working fields, building homes, barns and fences, making their own cloth, soap and food items that didn't grow from the ground.

The Regulator uprising that had just been chaotically resolved, had already left many backcountry farmers angry at corrupt officials and unfair taxes. By 1773, neighbors were beginning to split into Patriots, Loyalists, and “middlers,” which created local feuds and fear of raids on farms, even before the large battles that would come later.

Weak formal government and few royal troops actually stationed across the vast colony left many families exposed to threats from Native groups, outlaws, or even armed bands from the other side of the Patriot–Loyalist divide. 

The daily physical labor, isolation, limited trade, and growing political‑military tension made ordinary life hard in this time of growing uncertainty. While the colonists were dealing with all of this, the Parliment just kept piling on more taxes, laws and regulations. Here are the greatest hits of 1773-4.

The Tea Act of 1773

Parliament hoped to shore up the financially troubled British East India Company by reducing the massive amount of tea held in its London warehouses. This Tea Act 2.0 extended the Townshend Tea and was an attempt to undercut the price of smuggled Dutch tea. English tea was priced less than smuggled tea, but the imposed tax made it politically unpalatable. Colonists objected to the monopoly and another tax. It was also another signal from Parliament of its right to tax the colonies as it saw fit. You know what happened next...

A Tea Party, of sorts

In December 1773, Massachusetts colonial  protestors destroyed a large shipment of tea in Boston Harbor to show their anger at this new round of "taxation without representation." Their dissent was violent and destructive. The event lives on in history as the Boston Tea Party.  (Fun fact, the 342 chests of tea destroyed during the "party" would be worth over $1.7 million in today's currency.)

The Tea tax bothered a certain group of North Carolinians mightily. In October 1774, 51 women in Edenton set out to stage their own protest. They resolved to boycott British tea and cloth in support of the Patriot cause. Dubbed the Edenton Tea Party, this was one of the earliest organized political actions by women in our country's history and a non-violent one at that. Our foremothers were teaching us the nonviolent power of the consumer. 

“Maybe it has only been men who have protested the King up to now. That only means we women have taken too long to let our voices be heard. We are signing our names to a document, not hiding ourselves behind costumes like the men in Boston did at their tea party. The British will know who we are.”    

 

- Penelope Barker, signer of the Edenton Petition

"A Society of Patriotic Ladies" British Museum 965125001

News of the Edenton Tea Party spread quickly through out the colony. No doubt the local papers carried the signed petition of the steadfast rebellious women. A search of NC Digital did not turn up any issues of NC papers extant at this time. I did find a nice example of their petition in the Virginia Gazette published in colonial Williamsburg via the Women and the American Story website. You can examine for yourself below.

Enlarge for easier viewing
Source: Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Va.), 1774-11-03; Number 1213. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. Special Collections. Link 

Here is a transcript of the petition as shown in the Virginia Gazette:

"As we cannot be indifferent on any occasion that appears nearly to affect the peace and happiness of our country, and as it has been thought necessary, for the public good, to enter into several particular resolves by a meeting of Members deputed from the whole Province it is a duty which we owe, not only to our near and dear connections who have concurred in them, but to ourselves who are essentially interested in their welfare, to do everything as far as lies in our power to testify our sincere adherence to the same; and we do therefore accordingly subscribe this paper, as a witness of our fixed intention and solemn determination to do so."

Check out the names of the 51 signatories. Do you find any ancestors there? Note that Penelope Barker appears about midway down the left column.

The petition was also published in London papers. It drew backlash there. The cartoon above portrayed "the women ... as ugly, immoral, and neglectful of their duties as wives and mothers. The artist drew them this way because he thought it was unnatural for women to publicly share their political opinions. The cartoon also mocks the British government by showing that they have managed the colonies so badly that even women feel like they can openly rebel." 

Tensions were boiling as 1773 drew to a close. NC colonists were feeling angry, resentful and rebellious while Parliament sought any way possible to exert control assert their authority. More heinous acts were on the horizon. In fact, the following year produced a torent of them. The colonist would find them intolerable!

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