Women's voices in Rhode Island's Revolutionary record are often absent from the archives, but several episodes stand out. On March 2, 1775, women organized the Providence Tea Party near Market Square, where roughly three hundred pounds of tea were burned and Loyalist shop signs painted over with lamp black as a consumer protest against British taxation. A particularly interesting figure is Jemima Wilkinson of Cumberland, who after a near-fatal illness in 1776 emerged as the Public Universal Friend: a genderless spiritual leader who preached against war, gathered followers across New England, and founded a community in upstate New York. A quieter example is Abigail Kimball of Johnston, born in 1776, who at age nine inscribed a copy of English Liberties with the declaration that she was studying in order to learn the law.
Interviewees
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C. Morgan Grefe
- Executive Director, Rhode Island Historical Society
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Richard Ring
- Senior Director for Library & Museum Collections, Rhode Island Historical Society
