CHAPTER X.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 individualaction 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 theBoston 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 patriotsdrank 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, theBoston Evening Postof 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.

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 theMassachusetts 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 roundLet 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 prideWear none but your own country linen.Of economy boast. Let your pride be the mostTo show cloaths of your own make and spinning.What if homespun they say is not quite so gayAs 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 beTo such as will wear London factoryBut at first sight refuse, till e’en such you do chooseAs encourage our own manufactory.

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 publiccompact of Boston women. It is thus recorded in the Boston press:—

TheBoston 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.

TheBoston 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 theBoston 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.

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 equipageOf cups and saucers, creambucket, sugar tongs,The pretty tea-chest, also lately storedWith Hyson, Congo and best double-fine.Full many a joyous moment have I sat by yeHearing the girls tattle, the old maids talk scandal,And the spruce coxcomb laugh at—maybe—nothing.Though now detestableBecause I am taught (and I believe it true)Its use will fasten slavish chains upon my countryTo reign triumphant in America.

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 clearOf all she needs Lamira offers here.Nor does she fear a rigid Catos frownWhen she lays by the rich embroidered gownAnd 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 regalesWho’ll wear the home-spun produce of the vales?For if ’twould save the nation from the curseOf 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 ducapesAnd 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 pageTaught us the threatening of a Hebrew pageGainst wimples, mantles, curls and crisping pins,But rank not these among our modern sins,For when our manners are well understoodWhat in the scale is stomacher or hood?Tis true we love the courtly mien and airThe pride of dress and all the debonair,Yet Clara quits the more dressed negligéAnd substitutes the careless polanêUntil some fair one from Britannia’s courtSome jaunty dress or newer taste import,This sweet temptation could not be withstood,Though for her purchase paid her father’s blood.

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 storewhich 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 othertowns. 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 passedresolutions 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 slightvalue 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 Englishmenare 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. Thiscaricature 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 beanswere 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 toGreat 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.

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