North Carolina

The North Carolina panel illustrates the Edenton Tea Party, one of the earliest recorded instances of organized political action by women in the American colonies.

The panel depicts a group of women gathered outside the Chowan County Courthouse in Edenton, debating and discussing a document that symbolized their political resolve, known as the "Edenton Resolves."

This momentous action was organized by Penelope Barker in 1774 and involved 51 women who authored and signed a resolution to boycott British goods including tea and textiles. Driven by a sense of duty to themselves and to their families, the participants leveraged their economic agency as consumers in service of a political statement.

While ridiculed in England through satirical cartoons, the "Edenton Resolves" were celebrated in the colonies as an act of patriotism. These women not only supported the Revolutionary cause but placed themselves at great risk by publicly asserting their defiance of monarchical authority.