In the fall of 1774, fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina undertook a revolutionary act: they signed a resolution in protest of Britain's colonial taxation policies and gave their oaths to boycott British goods. Later remembered as the Edenton Tea Party, this event was an early example of women's political activism during the American Revolution.
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The Ladies of the Edenton Tea Party Resolves by the Numbers
Age of the Youngest Signer
Total Signers
Age of the Oldest Signer
A Revolutionary Act
What were the Edenton Tea Party Resolves? What moved the women of Edenton to draft a resolution?
Fact or Fiction?
A collection of true facts and historical misconceptions about the Edenton Tea Party.
Revolutionary Women
Who were the signers of the Edenton Tea Party Resolves? This section includes some brief snapshots of some of the historic document's more notable signers.
A Tea Party's Legacy
How are the Edenton Tea Party Resolves commemorated and honored today? How is North Carolina observing the 250th anniversary of the event?
The icon for this exhibit, an illustration of colonial women gathering to sign the Edenton Tea Party Resolves, as well as the illustration of Penelope Barker signing the resolves on the Revolutionary Women section of the exhibit are both reproduced images from Within Our Power: The Story of the Edenton Ladies' Tea Party (2024). All images from the book are reproduced with the permission of illustrator Jonathan D. Voss.
The excerpt of the postscript of the Virginia Gazette, which highlights a portion of the Edenton Tea Party Resolves on the Revolutionary Act section of the exhibit, is reproduced with the permission of the Special Collections of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The satirical drawing of the Edenton Tea Party Resolves, attributed to artist Philip Dawe on the Fact or Fiction section of the exhibit, is reproduced with permission from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The photograph of the Edenton Teapot monument on the Tea Party's Legacy section of the exhibit is reproduced with permission from the State Archives of North Carolina.