Happy Edenton Tea Party Day!

I thought that Edenton Tea Party Day would be a great time to tell you about a fun new cookbook I recently discovered, Take The Tour, published by St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Edenton, North Carolina in 1995. Edenton is known as the home of an early political protest, the Edenton Tea Party, which is believed to be "the earliest recorded political activity by colonial women," according to this book. The leader of this event was one Penelope Barker, and she and other local ladies protested the tax on tea by signing their names to a document that read, in part, "We the ladies of Edenton do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to ye pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea or that we, the aforesaid Ladies, 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of any manufacture from England, until such time that all Acts which tend to enslave this our Native Country shall be repealed." So these ladies were gathering and sipping their last cups of tea for a while on October 25, 1774, exactly 245 years ago today!

The tea party is commemorated with this historic marker in Edenton (also pictured on my vintage postcard here), and I'd never seen a painting of the marker before, but it's on the back of the cookbook.

The teapot features prominently in the graphics of the cookbook, and I love that women's history, tea, and teapots came together in an important event so many years ago. Clearly, I wanted this cookbook for the graphics and the historic information, but I was delighted to find that it also includes a recipe for Penelope Barker Lace Cookies, so I will be trying those soon!

Penelope Barker and her protesting friends

This is the political cartoon that appeared in the London press following the 1773 proclamation by Penelope Barker and the Edenton ladies that they would no longer "conform to ye pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea." The ladies were clearly being mocked for their stance, and I find that interesting. Women in this country recently observed the one hundredth anniversary of gaining the right to vote, yet women are still sometimes mocked for their political actions. I can remember not too many years ago when a local politician criticized his female opponent in a race by saying she ought to stay home and take care of her children instead of running for office. (Are you surprised to hear that he was soundly defeated?)

When Susan, my new tea friend in North Carolina, sent me those articles on Penelope Barker recently, she also included a list of the names of those other ladies who signed the document, and I eagerly scanned it, hoping to see a name from my own family tree, but alas, it wasn't there. But maybe yours is? If you visit the Edenton Historical Commission site here and scroll about a third of the way down, you'll see the article with the list of the ladies' names.

I already have more Edenton/Penelope books ordered since I am quite fascinated by the Edenton Tea Party, so expect more news about Penelope and friends as I find it. And I'm happy to know that this teapot (pictured on one of my own vintage linen postcards) stands in Edenton today as a tribute to the ladies of the Edenton Tea Party!

Penelope Barker Week continues …

In addition to knowing who Penelope Barker is because of her role in women's political history, I think it's also important to know that one of her relatives is the well-known tea expert James Norwood Pratt. In his New Tea Lover's Treasury, he writes, "In my own family, successive generations of womenfolk have disputed custody of a so-called Penelope Barker tea service, not always civilly. This handsome old silver pot and its companion pieces were once the possessions of our most notorious ancestor on the Barker side, a thrice-married and thrice-widowed forerunner of Scarlett O'Hara invariably known to us, her posterity, as 'Mrs. Barker.'"

Pratt notes that history has largely forgotten that Boston was not the only city with a tea protest. He writes, "The tale of Penelope Barker's tea party at Edenton has survived, however, handed down in our family along with the very pot that was present for the occasion. Generations of children have been suitably impressed by this big old pot and Mrs. Barker's phrase, 'the Pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea.'"

After drinking a "farewell cup," Pratt says, Mrs. Barker and fifty other Edenton ladies vowed they would no longer drink tea until the Tea Act, among others, was repealed. (Side note: Imagine having to enjoy your last cup of tea! Sort of like a death-row last meal, I suppose.) Pratt says the ladies signed a document noting their intentions, it was printed in a London newspaper, and soon after it appeared in print, "some anonymous New Englander fired 'the shot heard round the world' and with a prenatal disinclination for tea our Republic began struggling to be born."

Pratt says his family likes to think this was all "largely Mrs. Barker's doing," and he believes that "hot tea from her pot tasted better, I still think, because it was 'Pernicious.'"

Isn't that a terrific story?

Coming Friday: Who are the other women who signed the document at the Edenton Tea Party?

Why Women, Especially Those Who Love Tea, Should Know Penelope Barker

Recently, I mentioned that a new tea friend in North Carolina had gifted me with a cookbook and artwork related to Penelope Barker and the famous political protest known as the Edenton Tea Party in Edenton, North Carolina. I feared that I had written about Penelope and Edenton too often on this blog, but since several readers seemed unfamiliar with the story of Penelope and the Edenton Tea Party, I realized it's time to remedy that.

Because of the tax on tea in the colonies, protests against "taxation without representation" were happening in America well after the famous Boston Tea Party in December of 1773. In fact, I recommend to you a terrific little book called Ten Tea Parties: Patriotic Protests That History Forgot by Joseph Cummins. (I reviewed it here in 2012.)

The protest I am most interested in occurred in October of 1774, when Penelope and fifty other women gathered at the home of Elizabeth King in Edenton, North Carolina, to declare that they would no longer drink British tea or wear British cloth. The women were so incensed about the matter, in fact, that they signed their names for all the world to see on a document that read: "We the ladies of Edenton do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to ye pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea or that we, the aforesaid Ladies, 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." It was an incredibly courageous move for women of the day, and Penelope herself mailed the statement right off to a London newspaper.

In my next post, I'll share a little more of what I've learned about Penelope (much of it thanks to Susan in North Carolina!), and if history's not your cup of you know what, so be it, but I do ask you to please remember one thing: the Edenton Tea Party was the first public political action by women in this country! Now isn't that worth knowing? 

Coming Wednesday: One of Penelope's descendants is a famous figure in the tea world today. Any guesses?