July 1,
2008 Sweet Willa Archive
Let's Drink to Liberty Teas
By: Robyn Young
"If attention is not
paid to the ladies, we are determined to forment our
own rebellion."
Abigail Adams
|
Because china was scarce,
a colonial woman in the 1770's carried her
own cup, saucer and spoon in a special
cloth bag that might be embroidered with
political statements such as
“No Stamp
Act." |
Teatime, to
colonial women in the 1770, was far more than the
much needed opportunity share time with friends and
neighbors. Women of this era felt they had a
political right to protest and they wanted to be
considered “nationly,” to show their support for
their country going to war with the powerful empire
of Britain. They met over the tea hour to
discuss their part in the upcoming revolution.
The
Daughters of Liberty, a spin-off of the Sons of
Liberty that had operated loosely since 1769,
became an official organization in 1774, becoming
the first time women formally organized for the
political purpose of taking actions of resistance.
|
Liberty
In the
Form
of the Goddess of Youth Giving Support
to the Bald Eagle. Stipple engraving
by
Edward Savage, 1796.
|
|
In 1774, in Edenton, South Carolina, 51 women
signed the “Edenton Proclamation” refusing to buy
British tea (as well as linen, silk, sugar, glass, and
wine). Anti-tea leagues sprang up that refused to
purchase or partake of tea. Women for “the Cause”
planted strawberry, sage, thyme, mint, lavender and
other native teas to protest the high price of taxes on
the imported teas. These teas could be bitter and
drinking them without sugar, also boycotted, was a
real sacrifice for some!
While these
Daughters of Liberty sipped their
sometimes bitter homegrown teas, they also
discussed how to make and wear homespun cloth. In
those days, if you wanted a silk dress, you had to
import the silk cloth from France. But, the cloth was
first shipped to Britain and taxed before being
shipped to the colonies to be taxed yet again. This
became unacceptable to the Daughters of Liberty and
homespun clothing, even though it was not of the
latest Paris fashion, was worn proudly. Wearing
“homespun”proclaimed your support of the Patriots.
|
Women also met with their spinning
wheels to turn flax into thread for
making cloth, a time consuming task.
It took a year to turn the tall,
blue-flowered flax plant into fiber for
making linen. Harvesting the crop
involved the entire community and almost
every colonial family had a small patch
of flax. The government gave families a
tax break for growing their own flax |
Gradually, Americans refused to buy any British
goods. Although people began to again import tea
immediately after the war, it would take years
before British tea regained found it's former place
in the states.
Click
here
to a poem written
about
The Daughters of Liberty.
Bibliography:
Founding Mothers: Women of America in the
Revolutionary Era, 1975, Linda Grant DePauw,
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Women
and the American Revolution, 1974, Compiled by
Mollie Somerville, published by The National
Society, Daughters of the American Revolution
Robyn Young is the owner of
Hera’s House, A Traveling Women’s History Show.
She's also Founder and Executive Director of the
Pennsylvania Women’s History Project. Robyn
can be reached at P.O. Box 157, Atglen, PA
19310, by email at
herashouse@yahoo.com or at
610-453-4075.
The 20
Daughters of Liberty
Anonymous Author
Since the men,
from a party or fear of a frown,
Are kept by a sugar-plum quietly down,
Supinely asleep--and depriv'd of their sight,
Are stripp'd of their freedom, and robb'd of their right;
If the sons, so degenerate! the blessings despise,
Let the Daughters of Liberty nobly arise;
And though we've no voice but a negative here,
The use of the taxables, let us forbear:--
(Then merchants import till your stores are all full,
May the buyers be few, and your traffic be dull!)
~~~~~
Stand firmly resolv'd, and bid Grenville to see,
That rather than freedom we part with our tea,
And well as we love the dear draught when a-dry,
As American Patriots our taste we deny--
Pennsylvania's gay meadows can richly afford
To pamper our fancy or furnish our board;
And paper sufficient at home still we have,
To assure the wiseacre, we will not sign slave;
When this homespun shall fail, to remonstrate our grief,
We can speak viva voce, or scratch on a leaf;
Refuse all their colors, though richest of dye,
When the juice of a berry our paint can supply,
To humor our fancy--and as for our houses,
They'll do without painting as well as our spouses;
While to keep out the cold of a keen winter morn,
We can screen the north-west with a well polished horn;
And trust me a woman, by honest invention,
Might give this state-doctor a dose of prevention.
~~~~~
Join mutual in this--and but small as it seems,
We may jostle a Grenville, and puzzle his schemes;
But a motive more worthy our patriot pen,
Thus acting--we point out their duty to men;
And should the bound-pensioners tell us to hush,
We can throw back the satire, by biding them blush.
Published anonymously, but dedicated to the Daughters of Liberty
during the Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania Gazette (1768).
Reprinted
from:
http://www.americansonsofliberty.com/daughtersofliberty.htm
