- March 6, 1809, 217 years ago — Death of Thomas Heyward Jr..
- March 6, 1724, 302 years ago — Birth of Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress.
- March 7, 1707, 319 years ago — Birth of Stephen Hopkins, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
- March 7, 1699, 327 years ago — Birth of Susanna Boylston Adams, mother of John Adams.
Penelope Barker
BARKER, Penelope, patriot, born in Edenton, N.C., about 1728; died there, 1796.
She was the leader of a band of fifty-one women of Edenton who, in 1774, signed a protest against British taxation and pledged themselves to abstain from the use of English goods. This action, known as the “Edenton Tea Party,” was one of the earliest organized political demonstrations by women in America.
The protest was sent to England and attracted wide attention, being ridiculed in London papers and satirized in cartoons. Barker’s leadership and courage made her a symbol of female patriotism in the southern colonies.
She was twice married and lived a life of influence and refinement in Edenton, where her home became a center of revolutionary sentiment.
Source:
Wilson, James Grant, and John Fiske, eds. Appleton’s Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1887. Patriot Echoes Archive
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