Penelope Barker House, Edenton NC
The United States will celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026. But we all know — at least when we pause to think about it — that much time, dangerous activity, and persuasion were needed to get to that decision point.
North Carolinians can rightly celebrate one of the important events that led to independence. It occurred on Oct. 25, 1774 (250 years ago this month). On that date, 51 ladies in Edenton, North Carolina, signed a statement supporting their husbands’ boycotts of tea and other British products. They sent their statement to the press in Great Britain, where it caused a stir.
The statement, in truth, is a little cryptic. You need to know that a few months before, a provincial congress (North Carolina was termed a province at the time) had resolved to boycott tea and other products, such as British cloth. So, the Edenton women sent a petition saying that they were supporting their husbands’ boycott.
The essence of the statement was:
“[A]s 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 . . . .”
Their gathering under the direction of a prominent Edenton woman, Penelope Barker, has been called the “Edenton Tea Party” — an ironic term that echoes the “Boston Tea Party,” which occurred nearly a year earlier.
Like the men who threw chests of tea into the Boston Harbor, the 51 women of Edenton were taking an aggressive action. Their “tea party” is one of the first overt political activities by women in the 13 colonies, and thus in what would become the United States.
Not only did it show great political activity by women of the 18th century, but, in addition, the women of Edenton were opening themselves up to charges of treason and potential retribution. Indeed, one of the women, Elizabeth King, apparently got cold feet at the last minute and did not sign.
Here’s some background to Edenton’s tea party. For many years, Great Britain had been trying to get the colonies to pay taxes — especially after the costly French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), which ended in 1763. The effort started with the Stamp Act of 1765, but that law was withdrawn due to outsized colonial opposition. Then there were the Townshend Acts — extensive taxes on imported products including tea, glass, and lead, among other products. These too aroused opposition — to the point where Parliament withdrew all those taxes except the one on tea.
The tax on tea was still an irritant, both because tea was a very popular drink that had to be imported (there were no backyard tea gardens!) and because the colonists resented being taxed without representation. (They were more angry with Parliament than the king, because Parliament kept passing these laws.)
Then, after the Boston Tea Party, additional laws (the Coercive Acts, called the “Intolerable Acts” by the colonists) were enacted. These severe laws punished Boston for its tea party, partly by closing the Boston Harbor. Other colonies, including North Carolina, sent aid to the citizens of Boston.
And soon after, the ladies of Edenton took action. Their petition was first published in a Virginia newspaper. Then, in January 1775, it appeared in the British Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser along with a vicious satirical cartoon. The ladies were pictured at a raucous, even lewd, gathering, and many were given the faces of prominent British politicians. Even British Arthur Iredell, brother of prominent North Carolinian James Iredell, said sarcastically in a letter, “Pray are you becoming patriotic? . . . . Is there a Female Congress at Edenton, too?”
As historian Troy Kickler wrote about the Edenton event: “Although there was no dumping of tea into the ocean, the petition penned at the Edenton Tea Party was nothing less than a bold display of patriotism and love of liberty.” And it should be better known.
