DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY.
We are constantly hearing the statement reiterated, that the Society
of the Daughters of the American Revolution was the first association
of women ever formed for patriotic purpose. This assertion shows a
lamentable ignorance of Revolutionary history; for a century and a
quarter ago, before the War of the Revolution, patriotic societies
of women were formed all over the country, and called Daughters of
Liberty. Our modern bands should be distinguished by being called the
first patriotic-hereditary societies of women.
As we approach Revolutionary days, it is evident that the women of all
the colonies were as deeply stirred as were the men at the constant
injustice and growing tyranny of the British government, and they
were not slow in openly averring their abhorrence and revolt against
this injustice. Their individual action consisted in the wearing
only of garments of homespun manufacture; their concerted exertions
in gathering in patriotic bands to spin, and the signing of compacts
to drink no more of the taxed tea, that significant emblem of British
injustice and American revolt.
The earliest definite notice of any gathering of Daughters of Liberty
was in Providence in 1766, when seventeen young ladies met at the
house of Deacon Ephraim Bowen and spun all day long for the public
benefit, and assumed the name Daughters of Liberty. The next meeting
the little band had so increased in numbers that it had to meet in
the Court House. At about the same time another band of daughters
gathered at Newport, and an old list of the members has been preserved.
It comprised all the beautiful and brilliant young girls for which
Newport was at that time so celebrated. As one result of this
patriotic interest, the President and the first graduating class of
Brown University, then called Rhode Island College, were clothed, at
Commencement in 1769, in fabrics of American homespun manufacture. The
senior class of the previous year at Harvard had been similarly dressed.
These little bands of patriotic women gathered far and wide throughout
New England. At one meeting seventy linen wheels were employed. In
Newbury, Beverly, Rowley, Ipswich, spinning matches were held. Let me
show how the day was spent. I quote from the _Boston News-Letter_:--
Rowley. A number of thirty-three respectable ladies of the town met
at sunrise [this was in July] with their wheels to spend the day at
the house of the Rev’d Jedidiah Jewell in the laudable design of a
spinning match. At an hour before sunset, the ladies then appearing
neatly dressed, principally in homespun, a polite and generous repast
of American production was set for their entertainment, after which
being present many spectators of both sexes, Mr. Jewell delivered a
profitable discourse from Romans xii. 2: Not slothful in business,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
You will never find matters of church and patriotism very far apart in
New England; so I learn that when they met in Ipswich the Daughters
of Liberty were also entertained with a sermon. The Newbury patriots
drank Liberty Tea, and listened to a sermon on the text Proverbs xxxi.
19. Another text used at one of these gatherings was from Exodus xxxv.
25: “And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their
hands.”
The women of Virginia were early in the patriotic impulses, yet few
proofs of their action or determination remain. In a Northern paper,
the _Boston Evening Post_ of January 31, 1770, we read this Toast to
the Southerners:--
NEW TOASTS.
The patriotic ladies of Virginia, who have nobly distinguished
themselves by appearing in the Manufactures of America, and may those
of the Massachusetts be laudably ambitious of not being outdone by
Virginians.
The wise and virtuous part of the Fair Sex in Boston and other Towns,
who being at length sensible that by the consumption of Teas they are
supporting the Commissioners & other Tools of Power, have voluntarily
agreed not to give or receive any further Entertainments of that Kind,
until those Creatures, together with the Boston Standing Army, are
removed, and the Revenue Acts repealed.
May the disgrace which a late venal & corrupt Assembly has brought
upon a Sister Colony, be wiped away by a Dissolution.
This is pretty plain language, but it could not be strange to the
public ear, for ere this Boston women had been appealed to in the press
upon this same subject.
In the _Massachusetts Gazette_, as early as November 9, 1767, these
lines show the indignant and revolutionary spirit of the time:
Young ladies in town and those that live round
Let a friend at this season advise you.
Since money’s so scarce and times growing worse,
Strange things may soon hap and surprise you.
First then throw aside your high top knots of pride
Wear none but your own country linen.
Of economy boast. Let your pride be the most
To show cloaths of your own make and spinning.
What if homespun they say is not quite so gay
As brocades, yet be not in a passion,
For when once it is known this is much wore in town,
One and all will cry out ’Tis the fashion.
And as one and all agree that you’ll not married be
To such as will wear London factory
But at first sight refuse, till e’en such you do choose
As encourage our own manufactory.
Soon these frequent appeals, and the influence of the public and
earnest revolt of the Sons of Liberty, resulted in a public compact of
Boston women. It is thus recorded in the Boston press:--
The _Boston Evening Post_:--
Monday, February 12, 1770.
The following agreement has lately been come into by upwards of 300
Mistresses of Families in this Town; in which Number the Ladies of the
highest rank and Influence, that could be waited upon in so short a
Time, are included.
BOSTON, January 31, 1770.
At a time when our invaluable Rights and Privileges are attacked in
an unconstitutional and most alarming Manner, and as we find we are
reproached for not being so ready as could be desired, to lend our
Assistance, we think it our Duty perfectly to concur with the true
Friends of Liberty in all Measures they have taken to save this abused
Country from Ruin and Slavery. And particularly, we join with the very
respectable Body of Merchants and other Inhabitants of this Town, who
met in Faneuil Hall the 23d of this Instant, in their Resolutions,
totally to abstain from the Use of Tea; And as the greatest Part of
the Revenue arising by Virtue of the late Acts, is produced from the
Duty paid upon Tea, which Revenue is wholly expended to support the
American Board of Commissioners; We, the Subscribers, do strictly
engage, that we will totally abstain from the Use of that Article,
(Sickness excepted) not only in our respective Families, but that we
will absolutely refuse it, if it should be offered to us upon any
Occasion whatsoever. This Agreement we cheerfully come into, as we
believe the very distressed Situation of our Country requires it, and
we do hereby oblige ourselves religiously to observe it, till the late
Revenue Acts are repealed.
_Massachusetts Gazette_, and the _Boston Weekly News-Letter_:--
February 15, 1770.
We hear that a large Number of the Mistresses of Families, some
of whom are Ladies of the highest Rank, in this Town, have signed
an Agreement against drinking Tea (Bohea it is supposed, tho’ not
specified); they engage not only to abstain from it in their Families
(Sickness excepted) but will absolutely refuse it, if it should be
offered to them upon any Occasion; This Agreement to be religiously
observed till the Revenue Acts are repealed.
It was natural that, in that hotbed of rebellion, young girls should
not be behind their brothers, fathers, and their mothers in open avowal
of their revolt. Soon the young ladies published this declaration:--
We, the daughters of those patriots who have and do now appear for the
public interest, and in that principally regard their posterity--as
such, do with pleasure engage with them in denying ourselves the
drinking of foreign tea in hopes to frustrate a plan which tends to
deprive the whole community of all that is valuable as life.
One dame thus declared her principles and motives in blank verse:--
Farewell the teaboard with its gaudy equipage
Of cups and saucers, creambucket, sugar tongs,
The pretty tea-chest, also lately stored
With Hyson, Congo and best double-fine.
Full many a joyous moment have I sat by ye
Hearing the girls tattle, the old maids talk scandal,
And the spruce coxcomb laugh at--maybe--nothing.
Though now detestable
Because I am taught (and I believe it true)
Its use will fasten slavish chains upon my country
To reign triumphant in America.
When little Anna Green Winslow bought a hat in February, 1771, she
bought one of “white holland with the feathers sewed on in a most
curious manner, white and unsulleyed as the falling snow. As I am
as we say a daughter of Liberty I chuse to wear as much of our own
manufactory as posible.”
Mercy Warren wrote to John Winthrop, in fine satire upon this
determination of American women to give up all imports from Great
Britain except the necessaries of life, a list of the articles a woman
would deem it imperative to retain:--
An inventory clear
Of all she needs Lamira offers here.
Nor does she fear a rigid Catos frown
When she lays by the rich embroidered gown
And modestly compounds for just enough--
Perhaps some dozen of more slighty stuff.
With lawns and lutestrings, blond and mecklin laces,
Fringes and jewels, fans and tweezer cases,
Gay cloaks and hats of every shape and size,
Scrafs, cardinals and ribbons of all dyes.
With ruffles stamped, and aprons of tambour,
Tippets and handkerchiefs at least three score;
With finest muslins that far India boasts,
And the choice herbage from Chinesan coast.
(But while the fragrant hyson leaf regales
Who’ll wear the home-spun produce of the vales?
For if ’twould save the nation from the curse
Of standing troops--or name a plague still worse,
Few can this choice delicious draught give up,
Though all Medea’s poison fill the cup.)
Add feathers, furs, rich satins and ducapes
And head dresses in pyramidal shapes,
Sideboards of plate and porcelain profuse,
With fifty dittos that the ladies use.
So weak Lamira and her wants are few,
Who can refuse, they’re but the sex’s due.
In youth indeed an antiquated page
Taught us the threatening of a Hebrew page
Gainst wimples, mantles, curls and crisping pins,
But rank not these among our modern sins,
For when our manners are well understood
What in the scale is stomacher or hood?
Tis true we love the courtly mien and air
The pride of dress and all the debonair,
Yet Clara quits the more dressed negligé
And substitutes the careless polanê
Until some fair one from Britannia’s court
Some jaunty dress or newer taste import,
This sweet temptation could not be withstood,
Though for her purchase paid her father’s blood.
After the war had really begun, Mrs. John Adams, writing July 31, 1777,
tells of an astonishing action of Boston women, plainly the result of
all these revolutionary tea-notions:--
There is a great scarcity of sugar and coffee, articles which the
female part of the State is very loath to give up, especially whilst
they consider the scarcity occasioned by the merchants having secreted
a large quantity. There had been much rout and noise in the town for
several weeks. Some stores had been opened by a number of people, and
the coffee and sugar carried into the market and dealt out by pounds.
It was rumored that an eminent stingy wealthy merchant (who is a
bachelor) had a hogshead of coffee in his store which he refused to
sell the committee under six shillings per pound. A number of females,
some say a hundred, some say more, assembled with a cart and trunks,
marched down to the warehouse and demanded the keys which he refused
to deliver. Upon which one of them seized him by his neck and tossed
him into the cart. Upon his finding no quarter, he delivered the keys
when they tipped up the cart and discharged him; then opened the
warehouse, hoisted out the coffee themselves, put into the trunks, and
drove off. It was reported that he had personal chastisements among
them, but this I believe was not true. A large concourse of men stood
amazed, silent spectators of the whole transaction.
I suppose these Boston dames thought they might have coffee since they
could not have tea; and, indeed, the relative use of these two articles
in America was much changed by the Revolution. To this day much more
coffee is drunk in America, proportionately, than in England. We are
not a tea-drinking nation.
I don’t know that there were Daughters of Liberty in Philadelphia, but
Philadelphia women were just as patriotic as those of other towns. One
wrote to a British officer as follows:--
I have retrenched every superfluous expense in my table and family.
Tea I have not drunk since last Christmas, nor have I bought a cap or
gown since your defeat at Lexington. I have learned to knit and am
now making stockings of wool for my servants. In this way do I now
throw in my mite for public good. I know this, that as free I can die
but once, but as a slave I shall not be worthy of life. I have the
pleasure to assure you that these are the sentiments of my sister
Americans.
The women of the South were fired with patriotism; in Mecklenburgh and
Rowan counties, North Carolina, Daughters of Liberty found another
method of spurring patriotism. Young ladies of the most respectable
families banded together, and pledged themselves not to receive
addresses from any recreant suitors who had not obeyed the country’s
call for military service.
There was an historic tea-party also in that town of so much importance
in those days--Edenton, N. C. On October 25, 1774, fifty-one spirited
dames assembled at the residence of Mrs. Elizabeth King, and passed
resolutions commending the action of the Provincial Congress, and
declared also that they would not conform to “that Pernicious Custom of
Drinking Tea or that the aforesaid Ladys would not promote ye wear of
any manufacture from England,” until the tax was repealed.
The notice of the association is contained in the American Archives,
and runs thus:--
Association Signed by Ladies of Edenton, North Carolina, Oct. 25,
1774. As we cannot be indifferent on any occasion that appears
to affect the peace and happiness of our country, and as it has
been thought necessary for the publick good to enter into several
particular resolves, by meeting of Members of Deputies from the
whole Province, it is a duty that we owe not only to our near and
dear relations and connections, but to ourselves who are essentially
interested in their welfare, to do everything 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
intentions and solemn determination to do so. Signed by fifty one
ladies.
It is a good example of the strange notions which some historians
have of the slight value of circumstantial evidence in history,
that the names of these fifty-one ladies have not been preserved. A
few, however, are known. The president was Mrs. Penelope Barker, who
was thrice a widow, of husbands Hodgson, Crumm, and Barker. She was
high-spirited, and from her varied matrimonial experiences knew that it
was needless to be afraid of any man; so when British soldiers invaded
her stables to seize her carriage horses, she snatched the sword of one
of her husbands from the wall, with a single blow severed the reins
in the British officer’s hands, and drove her horses back into the
stables, and kept them too.
The fame of this Southern tea-party reached England, for Arthur Iredell
wrote (with the usual masculine jocularity upon feminine enterprises)
thus, on January 31, 1775, from London to his patriot brother, James
Iredell:--
I see by the newspapers the Edenton ladies have signalized themselves
by their protest against tea-drinking. The name of Johnston I see
among others; are any of my sister’s relations patriotic heroines? Is
there a female Congress at Edenton too? I hope not, for we Englishmen
are afraid of the male Congress, but if the ladies who have ever,
since the Amazonian era, been esteemed the most formidable enemies,
if they, I say, should attack us, the most fatal consequence is to
be dreaded. So dextrous in the handling of a dart, each wound they
give is mortal; whilst we, so unhappily formed by Nature, the more we
strive to conquer them the more are conquered! The Edenton ladies,
conscious I suppose of this superiority on their side, by former
experience, are willing, I imagine, to crush us into atoms by their
omnipotency; the only security on our side to prevent the impending
ruin that I can perceive is the probability that there are few places
in America which possess so much female artillery as in Edenton.
Another indication of the fame of the Edenton tea-party is adduced by
Dr. Richard Dillard in his interesting magazine paper thereon. It was
rendered more public by a caricature, printed in London, a mezzotint,
entitled “A Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton in North Carolina.”
One lady with a gavel is evidently a man in woman’s clothing, and is
probably intended for the hated Lord North; other figures are pouring
the tea out of caddies, others are writing. This caricature may have
been brought forth in derision of an interesting tea-party picture
which still exists, and is in North Carolina, after some strange
vicissitudes in a foreign land. It is painted on glass, and the various
figures are doubtless portraits of the Edenton ladies.
It is difficult to-day to be wholly sensible of all that these Liberty
Bands meant to the women of the day. There were not, at that time,
the associations of women for concerted charitable and philanthropic
work which are so universal now. There were few established and
organized assemblies of women for church work (there had been some
praying-meetings in Whitefield’s day), and the very thought of a
woman’s society for any other than religious purposes must have been
in itself revolutionary. And we scarcely appreciate all it meant for
them to abandon the use of tea; for tea-drinking in that day meant far
more to women than it does now. Substitutes for the taxed and abandoned
exotic herb were eagerly sought and speedily offered. Liberty Tea,
Labrador Tea, and Yeopon were the most universally accepted, though
seventeen different herbs and beans were named by one author; and
patriotic prophecies were made that their use would wholly outlive that
of the Oriental drink, even could the latter be freely obtained. A
century has proved the value of these prophecies.
Liberty Tea was the most popular of these Revolutionary substitutes.
It sold for sixpence a pound. It was made from the four-leaved
loose-strife, a common-growing herb. It was pulled up whole like flax,
its stalks were stripped of the leaves and then boiled. The leaves were
put in a kettle with the liquor from the stalks and again boiled. Then
the leaves were dried in an oven. Sage and rib-wort, strawberry leaves
and currant leaves, made a shift to serve as tea. Hyperion or Labrador
Tea, much vaunted, was only raspberry leaves, but was not such a wholly
odious beverage. It was loudly praised in the patriotic public press:--
The use of Hyperion or Labrador tea is every day coming into vogue
among people of all ranks. The virtues of the plant or shrub from
which this delicate Tea is gathered were first discovered by the
Aborigines, and from them the Canadians learned them. Before the
cession of Canada to Great Britain we knew little or nothing of
this most excellent herb, but since we have been taught to find it
growing all over hill and dale between the Lat. 40 and 60. It is
found all over New England in great plenty and that of best quality,
particularly on the banks of the Penobscot, Kennebec, Nichewannock and
Merrimac.