North Carolinian Patriotism: A Refinement-Barbarism Duality

At the Edenton Tea Party, fifty-one women, largely of North Carolinian, upper-class backgrounds, signed a declaration supporting the non-importation of tea. The Edenton women attempted to replicate the 1773 Boston Tea Party, but were largely ignored and not taken seriously, partially because of their gender and social class. Regardless, news of the Tea Party quickly spread to Britain. Dawe's cartoon ridicules the Tea Party, depicting the women as ugly, neglecting their domestic and maternal responsibilities, and frivolous—they take part in an actual tea party. Also significant is his decision to include a black servant or slave in the background, tacitly pointing to the hypocrisy and inefficacy of the Tea Party in a colony with an agrarian, slave-dependent economy. 

http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/courses/2017/hist1002/files/original/1b7ba2f00b29aa6cb89b072729066c10.pdf

This page from the North Carolina Gazette contextualizes Philip Dawe's satirical critique of the Edenton Tea Party. It shows explicit references to slavery—underlining the continued importance of the practice to the North Carolinian economy—attached to speeches regarding the state of "liberty in the American colonies," both supportive and skeptical of the Patriots. This contrast highlights a refinement-barbarism duality within the North Carolinian Patriot movement. Although the Gazette was also distributed across the North American colonies, and published international news from Britain, explicit references to slavery tie the newspaper directly back to North Carolina and its largely provincial, agrarian economy. The Gazette was also North Carolina's only newspaper between 1768 and 1776, and yet very few issues survive, further creating a chasm between North Carolinian Patriotism and Patriotism in New England. 

Philip Dawe’s illustration of “A Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton in North Carolina, published by R. Sayer and J. Bennett in London, satirizes the 1774 Edenton Tea Party, organized by fifty-one prominent North Carolinian women in response to the 1773 Boston Tea Party.[1] Dawe’s cartoon effectively superimposes refinement on barbarism, in a critique of upper class Patriot activities and practices. In critiquing American upper-class female Patriots, he imitates the artistic style of British artist William Hogarth, known for his satirical renderings of the British upper-class.[2] The dual refinement and barbarism that Dawe’s highlights extends outward to reflect the practices of Patriots across North Carolina in the lead-up to the Revolution. North Carolina’s major towns were often centers of political discourse, but the colonial North Carolinian economy, unlike its more trade-based Northern counterparts, was fueled primarily by agriculture and tobacco production, and relied heavily on slave labor.[3] The North Carolina Gazette showcases a similar barbarism alongside a more refined political discourse: a June 1775 edition of the Gazette advertises a “slave for sale” above an earl’s speech to the House of Lords on the “question of American liberty.” Although North Carolinian Patriots, including the women at the Edenton Tea Party, outwardly stood for principles of individual liberty and fair representation, their cause was innately contradictory. As much as they trumpeted British oppression and proclaimed themselves the standard bearers of liberty, they themselves were “oppressors” who sanctioned and participated in the continued practice of slavery.

“A Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton in North Carolina,” in its depiction of the Edenton Tea Party, paints their actions as frivolous, politically unengaged, misguided and neglectful, and broadly underlines the hypocrisy of the North Carolinian Patriots. The women in the cartoon are outwardly aristocratic and refined—they dress in clothing typical of the American and British upper class, gather surrounded by servants, and write what appears to be a declaration. The fifty-one women who attended the actual Edenton Tea Party indeed signed a document declaring they were “determined to give memorable proof of their patriotism” and could not be “indifferent on any occasion that papers to affect the peace and happiness of our country… it is a duty that we owe, not only to our near and dear connections, but to ourselves.”[4] Dawe, ridiculing the women’s declaration and decision to boycott tea in response to the Tea and Townshend Acts, portrays them as ugly and impressionable, despite their upper-class attire. The women depicted are in a casual environment, appearing to play at politics without grasping the full meaning of the Boston Tea Party they seek to emulate. Only one woman, with her back to viewers of the cartoon, focuses her full attention on the document, while the others are distracted by gossip, neglectful of their children, and, despite their intention to boycott, busy eating and drinking. The cartoon also notably portrays a black servant or slave in the background, presenting ink on a tray to one of the seated women. Although is unclear whether Dawe intended to criticize North Carolina’s continued use of slave labor, the appearance of black servant underlines the hypocrisy of the Edenton women: they purportedly devoted themselves to liberty and “no taxation without representation,” but those principles largely did not extend beyond the white, upper-class. Despite the actions and pro-liberty rhetoric of North Carolinian Patriots, they tacitly accepted the continued practice of slavery. 

The North Carolina Gazette contextualizes the dual refinement and barbarism of the North Carolinian Patriot movement in its explicit references to runaway slaves, and advertisements for “valuable Negro men seasoned to the county.” The Gazette’s slave advertisement appears just above a preview of a speech given by the Earl of Chantham to the House of Lords. The Gazette published the Earl’s speech, which called for the removal of troops from Boston, and asserted that “ought by every true American be preserved, as the liveliest picture ever drawn of his Rights and Liberties, invaded by a wicked and tyrannical Ministry.” The Gazette here turns Lord Chantham’s speech against him. It decries a “wicked and tyrannical Ministry” that purported itself to be devoted to principles of liberty and protecting “good American subjects” whilst imposing the Tea and Townshend Acts. The Gazette’s Patriotic-sympathetic phrasing is dually ironic given J.W. Stanly’s slave advertisement immediately above, and a report of a runaway slave immediately to its right. Explicit references to slavery are jarring and noteworthy in a newspaper publishing pieces of political discourse that, whether sympathetic to the Patriots or to the British Crown, debated issues of liberty and tyranny, goodness and wickedness, issues that belied the continued practice of slavery.[5] Dawe’s critique is particularly pointed within the context of these advertisements: the Edenton women pay lip service to the cause of liberty while partaking in slavery.

The passing appearance of or reference to slavery—both in the Dawe cartoon and in the Gazette—highlights North Carolina’s broader relationship to the practice. North Carolina lacked the extensive plantation system of its Deep South counterparts. Rather than work on large cotton plantations, slaves usually assisted in tobacco production and general handiwork. Agriculture work often included, but did not necessitate, slave labor. Although slavery was not as endemic to North Carolina as it was to South Carolina or Georgia, North Carolina’s acceptance of the practice permitted critics such as Dawe’s to ridicule the Patriots’ cause as misguided, hypocritical, and foolish.[6] A “Tea Party” in Edenton, North Carolina and organized by a select-few aristocratic women did not strike the same chord as a “Tea Party” in the more liberal, emancipated, and egalitarian Boston. Just as news of the Edenton Tea Party spread quickly to Britain, enabling Dawe’s critique, the North Carolinian Patriots’ tacit and hypocritical acceptance of slavery was broadcast well beyond the colony itself.[7] Modern historians now recognize that any outward gestures of refinement or calls for liberty from North Carolinian Patriots were necessarily qualified by the appearance of slaves and the practice slavery.

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Works Cited

“Edenton Tea Party.” Last modified 2016. http://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/edenton-tea-party/.

“North Carolina and Tobacco: Historical Background.” Last modified 2016. http://www.pbs.org/pov/brightleaves/historical-background/.

“North Carolina Gazette.” Last modified 2015. http://www.ncpedia.org/north-carolina-gazette.

“The Growth of Slavery in North Carolina.” Last modified 2016. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newnation/5252.

 “William Hogarth.” Last modified 2017. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/william-hogarth.