By the time later boycotts took place, patriot colonists understood very well the power of embargoes on British goods. However, colonists knew that for boycotts to work, they needed everyone to participate. Both the Sons and Daughters of Liberty pushed and prodded to make sure all merchants were abiding by the boycotts. Propaganda was everywhere. Even young ladies knew they needed to support the Patriot cause. For example, one young 9-year-old girl refused to drink tea when it was offered to her.
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Those who ignored the boycotts were publicly shamed or threatened. Some shop owners were physically threatened or outright violently abused if they ignored the boycotts. For example, in 1769, two loyalist female shop owners were revealed in the Boston Gazette to have imported British goods. These two women, Ame and Elizabeth Cumings, who had been orphaned and subsequently tutored to be self-sufficient by a prominent Bostonian businesswoman, opened a small shop which imported goods and gave sewing lessons. Although they were accused of being "Enemies to their Country" and were therefore vulnerable to harassment, vandalism, or looting. Ironically, in the long run, these two women prospered from the business that Loyalists gave them.
How did the author of the article on the top left of the newspaper describe the merchants who continued to import goods from Great Britain?
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Further analyze the newspaper article below in the Essex Gazette. How does the author describe the women and their actions?
Later, a 1770 letter written by Christian Barnes, a loyalist, described the lengths to which the Sons of Liberty would go to ensure the merchants were following the boycott agreements.
In the Christian Barnes letter, what happened to the imported British goods her husband had imported for their shop? How did she describe the Sons of Liberty?
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The Spirit of discord and confusion which has prevail'd with so much violence in Boston has now begun to spread its self into the country. These Poor deluded people with whom we have lived so long in Peice & harmony have been influenced have been influenced by the Sons of Rapin to take every method to distress us, at their March meeting they enter'd into resolves Simuler to those you have often seen in the Boston news Papers. At their next meeting they chose four inspectors, (Men of the most virulent disposition of any in Town,) to Watch those who should purchas goods at the Store with intent that their names should be recorded as enimies to their Country. This did not deter those from coming who had not vetoed to the resolves . . .
While all this was in agitation their was great outrages committed & insults offer'd to the Importers in Boston, so that some of them have been compell'd to quit the Town as not only their Property but their lives were in Danger. Nor are we wholly free from apprehentions of the like treetment, for they have already begun to commit outrages. the first thing that fell a Sacrifice to their mallace and reveng was the Coach, which caused so much decention between us. This they took the cushings out of and put them in the Brook, and the next night Cut the Carraig to peices. Not long after they Broke the Windows at the Pearl Ash Works . . .
The greatest loss we have as yet met with was by a mob in Boston, who, a few Nights ago, atacked a wagon Load of goods which belong'd to us. They abused the Driver, and cut a Bag of Pepper, which contain'd three hundred pd, leting it all into the street; then gathere'd it up in ther Hand[kerchie]fs & Hatts, and carried it off. The rest of the load they order'd back into the Publick Store of which the well disposed Commity keeps the Key . . .
Women by this time found their voice and loudly proclaimed that it was a woman's patriotic duty to continue to abstain from the trifling items many of them desired. Mercy Otis Warren, a noted poet and playwright, published the poem "A Woman's Trifling Needs.” She lists the many items women can do without.
Woman’s Trifling Needs |
By the 1770s, the Townshend Acts had been repealed but the British government continued to maintain a small tax on tea. Over the next three years, there was sporadic violence and tension in the colonies which resulted in additional British soldiers being sent to Boston. Eventually, this increase in military presence led to the Boston Massacre and a passage of a new tax. The New Tea Act of 1773 lowered the price of Tea from the British East India Company. However, Bostonians thought it was a trick and as a result participated in dumping what would be the equivalent of $2,000,000 of tea in today's market. This event became known as the Boston Tea Party.
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After the Boston Tea Party, 51 ladies, led by Penelope Barker, gathered in Edenton, North Carolina on October 25, 1774. It was the first protest in the American colonies organized and carried out wholly by women. This was a particularly complicated step since the women were anxious about being sure that they appeared to be well-bred, notable housewifes, not rabble-rousers or disreputable females. Penelope boldly stated, “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.” (Barker, 1774). However, within the document, they also acknowledged that they were merely following the examples of their husbands, thus giving them an excuse to get involved in the public sphere of protest and politics.
Text of the Edenton Ladies' Patriotic Guild Resolves:
Edenton, North Carolina, Oct. 25, 1774. |
Later, loyalist newspapers recounted events where women were labeled as being in “‘a certain epidemical phrenzy’ that surpassed ‘all pretended patriotic virtue of the more robustic males’” (Berkin, 24). One of the more famous loyalist commentaries came in the form of a political cartoon called “Society of Patriotic Ladies” drawn by Philip Dawe in 1775 (Norton, 162). He depicts the women gathered at the Edenton Ladies’ Tea Party as masculine, boisterous, and neglectful women who are taking on the role of men and neglecting the duties of motherhood. These types of descriptions tore at the very heart of colonial women’s identities as genteel and notable housewives--identities that were of the utmost importance to their social standing. Many women worried about losing this honorable status and the apparent shame they would incur from such slanderous depictions.
Analyze the political cartoon below, in what ways did the cartoonist show these women as masculine, boisterous, and neglectful?