PENELOPE BARKER

North Carolina
1728−1796
The Edenton Tea Party


Penelope Padgett Hodgson Craven Barker was one of the first women of the Revolutionary era to make a public statement about the outrageous behavior of King George and his Parliament. In October 1774 she hosted a tea party in Edenton, North Carolina, where fifty-one women signed a pledge to boycott tea and other manufactured goods sent to the colonies from Britain. Her name does not appear in many history books, but her role in the history of the American rebellion should not be underestimated.

The Richest Woman in North Carolina

North Carolina was a hotbed of opposition to Britain. While the patriots in Boston were getting most of the press, the citizens of North Carolina were fomenting a revolution of their own. Penelope Barker spearheaded a boycott movement among women throughout the colonies—and she was not afraid to take a jab at men.

Barker was not a neophyte when it came to politics. She had spent a considerable amount of time around the leading politicians of Edenton during her childhood and three marriages. Her father was a prominent doctor and planter who taught her management skills and the need for personal responsibility. Her marriages reinforced those lessons.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“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.”

—PENELOPE BARKER

She married in 1745 for the first time to John Hodgson (or Hodges), who had been married to her sister Elizabeth. He died soon after, and left Penelope as a nineteen-year-old pregnant widow with his and Elizabeth’s two children, one of their own, and another one on the way.

Barker inherited a significant amount of land from Hodgson, which was uncommon at the time. Normally, widows received one-third of their deceased husbands’ estates, primarily to enhance their chances of attracting another husband. That worked in Penelope Barker’s case.

Husband number two was James Craven, a wealthy planter. He, too, left his entire estate to Barker.

The deaths of two husbands by the time she was only twenty-eight did not dissuade her from marrying a third time. After all, she was—at that young age—the richest woman in North Carolina. Attorney Thomas Barker became her third husband, with whom she had three more children.

Thomas traveled to England on business quite often. Penelope managed their affairs while he was gone, which gave her some valuable insights into the political realities of the time. Thomas was gone on one trip for seventeen years! He sailed to London in 1761 to serve as agent for the North Carolina colony. There was a British blockade of American ships in place at the time, which prevented him from returning to North Carolina. He finally made it back in 1778, long after Penelope’s party ended.

Not the Typical Tea Party

Penelope Barker did not see why the men of North Carolina should bear the burden of rebellion during this tumultuous time. Her female friends agreed with her. Barker invited many of them to a tea party at the home of Elizabeth King to sign a document she had written proclaiming their intention to boycott British goods.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“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.”

—PENELOPE BARKER’S PETITION

Barker was ahead of her time in recognizing the value of good public relations. She sent a copy of her declaration to a London newspaper, which published it in the form of text and cartoons lampooning their boycott. Consequently, the meeting and the boycott drew a lot of attention in the city. That was not surprising, since newspapers there portrayed Barker and her friends as bad mothers and loose women. Their ad hominem attack did not stop the women back in the colonies from supporting the ladies of Edenton.

Women in several other locations in America launched their own boycotts. The negative impact on the British economy got the attention of the king and Parliament, even if the Edenton Tea Party declaration did not.

Penelope Barker’s appearance on the Revolutionary-era stage was brief. Eventually, the furor over her Tea Party document subsided. Her impact on the rebellion did not. She died in 1796 at age sixty-eight, but she will always be remembered as a leader who encouraged other women to get involved openly in the American movement for independence.

Although Penelope Barker gets most of the credit for the Edenton Tea Party, it took courage for all the women to sign the document. No doubt the fact that many of them were related to one another buoyed their courage due to moral support. They all deserve public acknowledgement. Here are their names:

FEDERAL FACTS

Penelope Barker’s October 25, 1774, tea party was reputedly the first women’s political rally in America. There may have been others, but they did not get the publicity Barker’s did.