A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton in North Carolina

Although the names of the Founding Fathers persist in the historical record of the American Revolution, women played an active role in the conflict. On October 25, 1775, in the aftermath of the Tea Act of 1773, a group of fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina, signed their names to a document promising they would stop drinking tea and wearing British-made fabrics. The Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser covered the event, criticizing it in large part because the participants were women. This satirical depiction of the Edenton ladies by Philip Dawe, published in March 1775, portrays these disruptors engaged in masculine behavior such as drinking punch and flirting while neglecting their children, a commentary on not only their political position but also their expected gender roles.