penelope barker....first american woman political activist

In response to the Tea Act of 1773, Penelope and fifty other women organized the Edenton Tea Party, which called for a boycott of English tea and clothing "until such time that all acts which tend to enslave our Native country shall be repealed."   They met on October 25, 1774 and drafted and signed a letter which was published in a London newspaper.  

The ladies were satirized in a British cartoon as loose women and bad mothers.