Revolutionary Tea Parties: Tea in North Carolina and Women s History Jamie L. Brummitt PhD Student, American religion, Duke University
Suffragettes with American flag, c. 1910-1915. General Rosalie Jones, Jessie Stubbs, and Colonel Ida Craft. From the LOC. Celebrating Women s History Month 2015 Weaving the Stories of Women s Lives.
Protesting Tea, Protesting Tyranny Tea Parties in Colonial America
Americans throwing the Cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River, at Boston. Engraving by W.D. Cooper in The History of North America. London: E. Newberry, 1789. From the LOC. Tea Parties in Colonial America The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773
Tea Parties in Colonial America October 25, 1774: 51 white women gathered and signed a pledge to boycott English tea. Penelope Barker, the wife of NC s Treasurer, organized a women s protest against the British. Historians think Elizabeth King, a prominent member of the community, hosted the protest in her home. Penelope Barker (engraving). In The Historic Edenton- Tea Party. Edenton, NC: DAR, 1898, frontispiece.
Tea Parties in Colonial America Protests and boycotts were not unusual by this time. Penelope organized this protest to support the non-importation resolutions passed in August 1774 by the North Carolina Provincial Congress and those passed by he First Continental Congress adopted in Philadelphia on October 20, 1774. Why is the The Edenton Tea Party important? 1. Solidified the link between tea and protest in the American imagination. 2. Added fueled to American s call for no taxation with representation. 3. Colonial women broke the tradition of drinking tea in the afternoon. This supports an American woman s identity and patriotism. 4. The first political act carried out by a group of women in colonial America. 5. The women sent a copy of the signed protest to England. It was published in the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser.
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. - The Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, January 1775
Tea Parties in Colonial America Other Responses from London: A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton in North Carolina. Mezzotint by Philip Dowes. London, March 25, 1775. From the LOC. Shows women in NC in a parlor having an afternoon tea party with men. If we look closely, we can see how this cartoon satirizes colonial American women.
Remembering the American Revolution The Boston Tea Party in Nineteenth-Century America (1800s)
Tea Parties in American Memory Americans did not initially remember the tea incident as The Boston Tea Party. It was imaged and labeled in textbooks as The Bostonians throwing the Tea overboard. Image: The Child s History of the United States. Boston: Carter, Hendee & Babcock, 1831, p. 59.
B.B. Thatcher, Traits of the Tea Party; Being a Memoir of George R.T. Hewes, one of the last of its survivors. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1835. Tea Parties in American Memory The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor becomes The Boston Tea Party by 1835
Tea Parties in American Memory The Boston Tea Party-- Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor. Image from: John Gilmary Shea. A Child s History of the United States. McMenamy, Hess & Company, 1872, between 380-381.
Centennial Celebrations of the Boston Tea Party (1873) Women s Rights and Tea Parties
Taxation without Representation The Boston Tea Party Women s Suffrage Movement December 17, 1773 19 th century American associated the Boston Tea party with: 1. The phrase Taxation without Representation. 2. The overthrow of tyranny in America. 3. The call for white males right to vote. 1848: Women s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. White women requested voting rights. 1872: Women jailed, denied trial, and fined for trying to vote.
Centennial Celebrations as Women s Suffrage Demonstrations 1873: Women s suffrage organizations sponsor celebrations of the Boston Tea Party at: 1. Faneuil Hall in Boston 2. Tremont Temple in Boston 3. Union League Theatre in NYC Ticket for the Boston Tea Party Centennial hosted by the New England Woman s Suffrage Association and the Woman s Journal.
The women of New England who believe that taxation without representation is tyranny, and that our forefathers were justified in defying despotic power by throwing the tea into Boston harbor, invite the men and women of New England to unite with them in celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of that event in Fanueil Hall. - Invitation to the Centennial Celebration, from History of Woman Suffrage (1886) Suffragists recognized The Boston Tea Party as a patriotic protest. Suffragists re-associated tea parties with women s rights.
This is the result at the close of 100 years of this government, that I, a native born American citizen, am found guilty of neither lunacy nor idiocy, but of a crime a States Prison offence simply because I exercised our right to vote. If other rose to revolution because of a stamp duty, or a tax on tea, paper or glass, some would perhaps advocate such a measure here; but I don t propose to do so. - Susan B. Anthony, Speech to the Centennial of the Boston Tea Party in New York City, 1873 Susan B. Anthony proposed that women stop paying taxes since they were not represented in the U.S. government by a vote.
Reactions to the Centennial Celebrations Harper's Weekly satirized suffragists support of the Boston Tea Party on January 3, 1874. Image caption: This is the Most Magnificent Movement of All. The New England Woman's Tea Party, believing that 'Taxation without Representation is Tyranny,' and that our Forefathers were justified in resisting Despotic Power by throwing the Tea into Boston Harbor, hereby do the Same.
The Tea, Oil on Canvas by Mary Stevenson Cassatt (American 1844-1926), c. 1880. Tea Parties and Women s Suffrage, 1870 to 1920s
Tea Parties and Women s Suffrage, 1870 to 1920s By the 1920s, tea and tea parties became symbols of the Woman s Suffrage Movement. Tea was linked to protest, patriotism, and women s right. The Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association advertised Suffrage Fund Coffee in the Woman s Journal for women s groups to buy and sell at fundraisers. The Woman Suffrage Party distributed Equality Tea for women s groups to sell as a fundraiser. The Oakland Amendment League sold tea at a cherry festival in 1911 as part of the Woman's Suffrage Movement. The Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association advertised Suffrage tea in a special box for fifty cents. Individual women and women s groups hosted tea parties to support the right for women to vote.
Thygeson: The part I played in suffrage was, I think, a really good one. You had these little afternoon gatherings of women. You had a cup of tea. A little social gathering. While we were drinking tea I gave a little talk and they asked questions about what was going on. It was a lot better, I thought at the time, than to have a lecture. Because a lot of them wouldn't go to a lecture. I took my own neighborhood when I went out and did that talking. Sullivan: Did you have them to your house for tea? Thygeson :No, I went to their houses. They had a little afternoon tea just to hear me talk. Sullivan: How many women would turn out. Thygeson: Oh, there might be six or eight women in the group. - Interview with Sylvie Thygeson. In The Suffragists: From Tea-Parties to Prison. Bancroft Library, 1974, 18. Women promote their right to vote by speaking at Tea Parties.
Tea Parties in North Carolina Remembering The Edenton Tea Party of 1774 Memorializing The Edenton Tea Party of 1774 October 16, 1901: Members of the NC DAR met in Henderson, NC. They hosted a tea party in remembrance of the Edenton Tea Party. The women hoped to erect a memorial in honor of those grave and patriotic women, who so early expressed their determination to do what they could to help in the struggle for liberty and independence. Moreover, they suggested that This society of women should in some way commemorate this act heroism on the part of women, and should be recognized in some tangible way.
Tea Parties in North Carolina Raising Money for the Edenton Tea Party Memorial Members of the Edenton DAR publish the North Carolina Booklet: Great Events in North Carolina History to raise money. Published from 1901-1921. Monthly publication. 10 cents per issues; $1 for the year. The Historic Tea-Party of Edenton was issued in August 1901. Memorial erected in 1910. Edenton Tea Pot Memorial. Postcard c. 1930-1950.
Women s Suffrage in North Carolina Women s suffrage groups worked hard for the vote. 1894: North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association formed. 1897: Woman suffrage bill denied after being sent to the committee on insane asylums. 1913: NC women join the National American Woman Suffrage Association. 1915: Equal Suffrage Bill is defeated in both houses of the North Carolina state legislature. 1920: Nineteenth amendment ratified, after it was postponed for a week. Gertrude Weil, far left, and North Carolina Suffragists, c. 1920. Photo from the North Carolina State Archives.