BY ALEXIS TOBIAS-JACAVONE

On Oct. 25 and 26, Edenton will host the of the Edenton Tea Party 250th Anniversary Celebration! Join us downtown Saturday (Oct. 26) to enjoy a parade, book launch, living history demonstrations, and more!

To tell the full story, we have to go back to December 16, 1773. That night, members of the Sons of Liberty threw 340 chests of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Crown’s unfair treatment of the Colonies through “taxation without representation”. This action later became known as the “Boston Tea Party”.

It is important to note here that some of the Boston Tea Party participants concealed their identities by disguising themselves as Native Americans in order to avoid repercussions.

Let’s just say the Crown wasn’t exactly thrilled with this news, and in early 1774, it responded with the four “Intolerable Acts”, also known as the “Coercive Acts”.

A series of measures intended to punish the citizens of Boston for the Boston Tea Party and to quell the general unrest in all thirteen American Colonies, the Intolerable Acts consisted of the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until the citizens paid for the destroyed shipment of tea and the government was satisfied that order was restored, the Massachusetts Government Act, which revoked the Massachusetts Charter and brought the colony under the direct control of the Crown, the Administration of Justice Act, which allowed any accused Crown officials to have their trials elsewhere in the Empire and thus escape true justice, and the Quartering Act, which allowed for British troops to be quartered in structures other than military barracks.

By the summer of 1774, all 13 Colonies had learned of this distressing news, and the citizens of North Carolina decided to take action. On August 25-27, 1774, representatives from across the colony met at New Bern for what would become the First North Carolina Provincial Congress, held in defiance of the Crown. There the delegates decided North Carolina’s response to the Crown’s harsh oppression of the American Colonists’ rights as British citizens.

The Congress ultimately risked the Crown’s wrath by issuing a series of resolutions designed to reaffirm North Carolina’s loyalty to Great Britain, yet force a redress of grievances. Key components of the overall plan of action were to join the other Colonies in a boycott British goods and to suspend North Carolina’s exports to Great Britain, both calculated to negatively impact trade and the British economy.

This was not a decision made lightly, as a trade embargo of this scale was asking a lot of the average North Carolinian. While those who reaped the benefits of self-sufficient households and enclosed plantation economies would be inconvenienced by diminished access to finished goods and luxury products, many merchants, farmers, and tradesmen relied on the British mercantile system for their livelihoods, and thus needed stable trade to feed their families.

Yet 51 women from Edenton and the Albemarle Sound region knew the situation in the Colonies wouldn’t improve without sacrifice, and in a statement dated October 25, 1774, they vowed to adhere to the resolves adopted by the First Provincial Congress.

The statement, later named the “Edenton Resolves”, reads:
“Edenton, North Carolina, Oct. 25, 1774. 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 every thing 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.” Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, January 16, 1775, Page 2.

Unlike the members of the Sons of Liberty who concealed their identities while protesting the Crown, the 51 women signed the Edenton Resolves under their own names to publicly support the American cause. By doing so, they not only defied the Crown but also 18th-century societal expectations, which considered public political participation to be the province of men.

The 51 Signers thus risked ridicule and worse to stand up to the Crown, but they did so in support of their family, friends, and communities. Many of the Signers were directly related to delegates of the Provincial Congress, and many of those Signers’ female family members signed the statement in turn as the delegates had put both their lives and those of their families on the line to achieve change.

Beyond the family groups with a direct connection to the Congress, the 51 signatures represent friendships and social connections that span the socio-economic spectrum of 18th-century Edenton. The fact that Penelope Barker and Jean Blair, two of the wealthiest women in North Carolina at the time, signed the same document as Jane Wellwood, whose father was a ward of St. Paul’s parish and who later passed away without property, shows the unifying power of the American cause in the lead-up to the Revolution. Indeed, alongside those of more affluent families, among the 51 names are households that were severely threatened by the economic downturn that would arise from the trade boycott.

Hence between the risk of harm to their families and the threat of social castigation, we can truly admire the sheer courage required for each woman to sign the statement. This political action written and organized by so many women garnered international attention, as the Edenton Resolves and list of signatures were published in newspapers — first in the Virginia Gazette on November 3, 1774, and later in the London newspapers and throughout Great Britain in January of 1775.

While this news did indeed inspire some unflattering responses at the time—in particular, a satirical print called “A Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton in North Carolina” published in London in March of 1775 — the 51 Signers’ act of patriotism later became known as the “Edenton Tea Party”, and stands today as a major milestone in our local, state, and national history.
Yet the Edenton Tea Party only marks the beginning of Edenton-Chowan women making history and promoting positive change along North Carolina’s journey to true freedom.

Less than a century after the “Edenton Resolves” were published in the London newspapers, another woman from Edenton named Harriet Jacobs took the courageous step forward by publishing her autobiography and publicly sharing her experiences as an enslaved child, young woman, and young mother. Her words in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl continue to touch the hearts and minds of millions of readers all over the world.

In 1893, Josephine Napoleon Leary, who was born into slavery, commissioned the J. N. Leary building, which stands today as one of the most iconic commercial structures on South Broad Street, and serves as the home of The Chowan Herald. One of Edenton’s most successful businesswomen and real estate magnates, Josephine Leary realized her own American dream by sending both of her daughters, first generation free, to college, when it had been illegal for her to receive even a basic education while enslaved as a child.

In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, trailblazing educator and East Gale Street resident Evalina Badham traveled throughout North Carolina and Virginia to advocate for improved educational resources for Black students and increased educational opportunities for young Black women.

Women have been central figures in our local historic preservation movement going back more than a century. In 1918, 11 of the 37 founding members of the Cupola House Association were women, and they became the driving force behind the Cupola House’s use as a library and public space. The Edenton Woman’s Club, the NSDAR Edenton Tea Party Chapter, and the Edenton Historical Commission were also established in the 1940’s-1960’s, and all are led by women today. The Elizabeth Vann Moore Foundation was also established in the 21st century in honor of local historian Elizabeth Vann Moore, whose invaluable research on the Edenton Tea Party drives much of its historic interpretation today.

Our local business community, school district, government agencies, organizations, and non-profits also have a high proportion of female leadership, as Edenton-Chowan women have remembered that “we cannot be indifferent” for 250 years. Today we thus celebrate the courage of 51 women who, 146 years before their female descendants could vote, stood up to injustice and shook the world.

Thanks to grants from America 250 NC to the Town of Edenton and Chowan County in accordance with the commemorative theme of “Visions of Freedom”, we are able to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Edenton Tea Party with a great programming schedule of free activities for the whole family.

Friday, we will enjoy an opening ceremony on the Courthouse Green, a living history program by NC Historic Sites on the Courthouse Green, and the event’s keynote lecture by Margaret Pritchard at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Be sure to come downtown Saturday to enjoy the 250 Years of Edenton-Chowan Women Making History parade at 10:00 AM, featuring the Colonial Williamsburg Fife & Drum Corps, the Tryon Palace Fife & Drum Corps, and the Tidewater Pipes & Drums.

After the parade, head over to the Cupola House gardens between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM to enjoy the Colonial Market organized by the Cupola House Association, and to the Iredell House between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM to participate in the “Acts of Rebellion” living history program with NC Historic Sites.

At 11:30 AM, the new book, Within Our Power: The Story of the Edenton Ladies’ Tea Party, will officially launch at the Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library. This beautiful children’s book was made possible by the North Carolina Office of Archives & History.

In the early afternoon, the Edenton Tea Party commemorative mural by Max Dowdle will be dedicated next to Creswell Furniture on South Broad Street. The Creswell Furniture building is on the original site of the ca. 1782 Penelope Barker House, home of Edenton Resolves Signer Penelope Barker, who resided in an earlier house at that location in 1774.

Finally, bring some chairs down to Colonial Park to enjoy a concert by “Sister Sadie”, a Grammy-nominated all-female bluegrass band, and a fireworks show to wrap up the Celebration!

All of these programs are free to attend and are open to the public.

Special thanks to the North Carolina Office of the Governor, the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Director Sarah Koonts and the America 250 NC team, Town of Edenton Mayor W. Hackney High, Chowan County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Bob Kirby, the Town of Edenton Town Council, the Chowan County Board of County Commissioners, Town of Edenton Town Manager Corey Gooden, Chowan County Manager Kevin Howard, Town of Edenton Assistant Town Manager/Planning Director Dewayne Whealton, Chowan County Clerk to the Board Susanne Stallings, Town of Edenton Finance Director Virginia Smith, Chowan County Finance Officer Cathy Smith, NC Historic Sites Deputy Director Chuck LeCount, North Carolina Office of Archives & History—Historical Research & Publications Supervisor Ansley Wegner, Main Street Edenton Director Ches Chesson, Edenton Historical Commission Executive Director Robert Leath,
Chowan County Tourism Development Authority Director Erienne Mizell, Edenton-Chowan Chamber of Commerce Director Susan Creed, Chowan Arts Council Director Meredith Timberlake, Chowan County Librarian Jared Jacavone, NC Historic Sites Representative Laura Rogers, Town of Edenton Public Information Officer Tyler Newman, Main Street Edenton Events Coordinator Timmy Turner, and the Friends of the Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library for making this event possible.

Alexis Tobias-Jacavone is the Edenton Historical Commission’s director of history & communications.