Penelope Barker - Mother of Women's Political Liberation
Penelope Barker may well have been one of the most courageous women in US history. At a time when women simply did not publicly engage in politics, she held a tea party. But it was not really a tea party; it turned into the first woman's political activity in colonial American history -- in fact, in western history. At the time of Barker's tea party, October 25, 1774, women in Europe did NOT engage in political discourse either. For many reasons, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Sarah Palin, Margaret Thatcher and every woman who has ever expressed an opinion at a school board or town hall meeting or in the halls of the Congress owes gratitude to Penelope Barker for what she did in Edenton, NC, to advance the rights of women to engage in politics.
The better know Boston Tea Party was conducted by men, wearing costumes to protect their identity. Barker rejected the notion of hiding and instead publicly affixed signatures to the proclamation, which was signed by 51 women at Edenton in support of the declarations of the male leaders of the colony.
At the time, according to Diane Silcox-Jarrett's "Penelope Barker, Leader of the Edenton Tea Party," in Heroines of the American Revolution, America's Founding Mothers (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Green Angle Press, 1998), 17, Barker said: "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."
Her proclamation read: "We the ladyes of Edenton do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to ye pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea or that we, the aforesaid Ladyes, will not promote ye wear of any manufacture from England, until such time that all Acts which tend to enslave this our Native Country shall be repealed."
Expected to cause a stir, Mrs. Barker's proclamation got to newspapers in London where the actions of the 51 ladies in Edenton were reported in a very negative fashion, even alleging the women were bad mothers and/or loose women. Other women in the Colonies thought otherwise and emulated Barker and the women of Edenton by boycotting British goods, which soon got the attention of the Crown. Because women's views on matters politic were not considered worthy of consideration, the British laughed and their cartoonist's had a fun day. An enlarged copy of one famous cartoon hangs today in the entry hall of the Barker House in Edenton. Her former home now serves as the home of the Edenton Historical Commission, 505 South Broad St.
If you have an ancestor among the signers of Penelope Barker's proclamation, thank them for advancing the cause of women's right to engage in politics, not to mention that matter of Independence for the United State. The 51 signers included several relatives with comparable or similar names:
Penelope Barker may well have been one of the most courageous women in US history. At a time when women simply did not publicly engage in politics, she held a tea party. But it was not really a tea party; it turned into the first woman's political activity in colonial American history -- in fact, in western history. At the time of Barker's tea party, October 25, 1774, women in Europe did NOT engage in political discourse either. For many reasons, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Sarah Palin, Margaret Thatcher and every woman who has ever expressed an opinion at a school board or town hall meeting or in the halls of the Congress owes gratitude to Penelope Barker for what she did in Edenton, NC, to advance the rights of women to engage in politics.
The better know Boston Tea Party was conducted by men, wearing costumes to protect their identity. Barker rejected the notion of hiding and instead publicly affixed signatures to the proclamation, which was signed by 51 women at Edenton in support of the declarations of the male leaders of the colony.
At the time, according to Diane Silcox-Jarrett's "Penelope Barker, Leader of the Edenton Tea Party," in Heroines of the American Revolution, America's Founding Mothers (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Green Angle Press, 1998), 17, Barker said: "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."
Her proclamation read: "We the ladyes of Edenton do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to ye pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea or that we, the aforesaid Ladyes, will not promote ye wear of any manufacture from England, until such time that all Acts which tend to enslave this our Native Country shall be repealed."
Expected to cause a stir, Mrs. Barker's proclamation got to newspapers in London where the actions of the 51 ladies in Edenton were reported in a very negative fashion, even alleging the women were bad mothers and/or loose women. Other women in the Colonies thought otherwise and emulated Barker and the women of Edenton by boycotting British goods, which soon got the attention of the Crown. Because women's views on matters politic were not considered worthy of consideration, the British laughed and their cartoonist's had a fun day. An enlarged copy of one famous cartoon hangs today in the entry hall of the Barker House in Edenton. Her former home now serves as the home of the Edenton Historical Commission, 505 South Broad St.If you have an ancestor among the signers of Penelope Barker's proclamation, thank them for advancing the cause of women's right to engage in politics, not to mention that matter of Independence for the United State. The 51 signers included several relatives with comparable or similar names:
| Anne Anderson | Penelope Barker | Sarah Beasley |
| Elizabeth Beasely | Ruth Benbury | Lydia Bennet |
| Jean Blair | Mary Blount | Rebecca Bondfield |
| Lydia Bonner | Mary Bonner | Margaret Cathcart |
| Abigale Charlton | Grace Clayton | Elizabeth Creacy |
| Mary Creacy | Mary Creacy | Elizabeth Crickett |
| Tresia Cunningham | Penelope Dawson | Elizabeth Green |
| Anne Hall | Frances Hall | Anne Haughton |
| Sarah Hoskins | Anne Horniblow | Sarah Howe |
| Sarah Howcott | Mary Hunter | Elizabeth Johnston |
| Anne Johnstone | F. Johnstone | Mary Jones |
| Mary Littedle | Sarah Littlejohn | Sarah Mathews |
| Elizabeth P. Ormond | M. Payne | Elizabeth Patterson |
| Margaret Pearson | Mary Ramsay | Elizabeth Roberts |
| Elizabeth Roberts | Elizabeth Roberts | Elizabeth Vail |
| Elizabeth Vail | Susannah Vail | Sarah Valentine |
| Marion Wells | Jane Wellwood | Mary Woolard |
