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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

The Edenton Tea Party

About this illustration

Philip Dawes, "A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton in North Carolina." Mezzotint. London, March 25, 1775.

Date created
March 25, 1775
License
This work is believed to be in the public domain. Users are advised to make their own copyright assessment and to understand their rights to fair use.
Source
Original image housed by Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, British Cartoon Collection

See this illustration in context

  • Revolutionary North Carolina: Primary sources and readings explore North Carolina in the era of the American Revolution. Topics include the Regulators, the resistance to Great Britain, the War for Indpendence, and the creation of new governments. (Page 2.8)
  • North Carolina History: A Sampler: A sample of the more than 800 pages of our digital textbook for North Carolina history, including background readings, various kinds of primary sources, and multimedia. Also includes an overview of the textbook and how to use it. (Page 7.1)

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  • See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
British cartoon depicting the Edenton Tea Party

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This British cartoon satirizes the fifty-one ”patriotic ladies” of Edenton, North Carolina, in their attempt to endorse the nonimportation association resolves of 1774. Their depiction as ugly or foolish probably owes more to their allegiance to the colonial cause than it does to their gender. As Linda Kerber has remarked, for many American women, the signing of a petition—virtually unknown before the 1770s—was their first political act (Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America [1980], 41).