_ eel History _
By Billy Arthur
Edenton’s Tea Party
'This significant event in North Carolina history has long
been surrounded by questions.
While the so-called Kdenion
Tea Party of October 25.
177*1. has always been, by tra¬
dition. a significant event in North Car¬
olina history, the only evidence it actu¬
ally took place was a letter and a vulgar
cartoon in a London newspaper, plus
the happenstance find of its supposed
printing plate.
The event took place during the peri¬
od in American history when the British
government was trying to tighten con¬
trol of its colonial affairs and swell the
royal treasury with what the colonists
called "oppressive taxes.- The focal
point at home and abroad became an
import duty on East Indian tea. All along
the Atlantic Seaboard there were hun¬
dreds of protests, demonstrations and
"pretended tea parties" bv both men and
women, with New Bern and Edcnton
included.
At New Bern in August of that year,
the First Provincial Congress declared
that possessing “the rights of English¬
men.” the colonists could be taxed only
“by their consent." Therefore, it
resolved, among other things, that “we
will not make use of . . . East Indian lea
idler September tenth." not import from
Great Britain "any merchandise whatev¬
er. except medicines” after January I.
1775. “and we will consider all persons
not complying with this resolve enemies
to their country."
The "parties" have been likened to
throwing tea overboard from an in¬
coming ship and burning in effigy the
royal governor or British Prime Minister
I-ord North. It has also been said that in
Edenton Penelope Barker patriotically
poured a vile beverage made of dried
sassafras leaves instead of tax-paid tea.
Edenton’s lea party was nothing of the
sort. Instead, according to Chowan Coun¬
ty lore, the glamorous, wealthy and
dynamic Barker, wife of Province Trea¬
surer Thomas Barker, did call and chair a
meeting of 51 women on October 25 at
the home of Elizabeth King, wife of a
prominent merchant, overlooking Eden-
The famous Edenton Tea Party cartoon.
ton Bay. There, the women are said to
have signed a revolutionary’ document
pledging their support of the Provincial
Congress.
But it was not a “first" in the colonies.
Nine months earlier in Rhode Island,
some women had organized against drink¬
ing East Indian tea. but their action was
not as all-encompassing as that of the
Congress at New Bern. So. while the
national importance of the Edenton afl’air
has been minimized by scholars, few doubt
that a significant event ilid occur.
The first item of record pertaining to
it appeared in the Morning Chronicle and
Ixtndon Advertiser of January 16. 1775. It
was an excerpt of a “letter from North
Carolina" dated October 27, 1774:
“The Provincial Deputies of North
Carolina having resolved not to drink any
more Tea nor wear any more British
cloth. See., many ladies of this Province
have determined to give a memorable
proof of their patriotism, and have
accordingly entered into the following
honorable and spirited association. I send
(Силсу Ы
N C D>. iuoc o( Ait hire a*! HMoy
The State/Ociobcr 1994
it to you. to show your fair countrywom¬
en, how zealously and faithfully American
ladies follow the laudable example of
their husbands, and what opposition your
Ministers may expect to receive from a
people this firmly united against them.”
There followed the text of the paper
signed by the women:
"Edenton, North Carolina. Oct. 25.
1 774. /Vs we cannot be indifferent on any
occasion that appears nearly to affect the
peace and happiness of our colony, and
as it has been thought necessary, for the
public good, to enter into several par¬
ticular resolves by 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 con¬
curred in them, but to ourselves who are
essentially interested in their welfare, to
do everything as far as lies in our power
to testify out sincere adherence to the
same; and we do therefore accordingly
subscribe this paper as a witness of our
fixed intentions and solemn determina¬
tion to do so."
Fifty-one names were listed, some
more than once.
English interest — and. of course,
everyone at the time — was whetted by
a widely reprinted Revolutionary Carica¬
ture, which appeared in London under
a printing date of March 28. 1775.
Thought to have been the work of
British artist Philip Dawc and tiller! "A
Society of Patriotic 1-idysAt Edenton in
North Carolina." it was considered vul¬
gar by some people, because it included
a dog urinating on a chest of British tea
while a child played beneath a table.
Nevertheless, the representation was
reported so clear that in 1880 15 signers
around the table were said to have been
recognizable and many words of a pur¬
ported document readable, such as:
"We. the I-adys of Edenton. do hereby
solemnly engage not to conform to that
Pernicuous Custom of Drinking Tea, or
that we. the aforesaid 1-adys, will not pro¬
mote ye aforesaid wear of any manufac¬
ture from England until such time that
all Acts which tend to enslave this out
Native County shall lx- repealed."
The cartoon shows Penelope Barker,
with gavel in hand, and her Negro maid
standing behind her. Another figure is
emptying tea from a caddy onto the
floor, and a male figure, believed to rep-
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