Not Your Father's Founders (4 page)

Litchfield, Connecticut
January 21, 1738−February 12, 1789
An Overrated Historical Figure

After his father died in 1755, Ethan took over the management of the family farm, which short-circuited his education. Two years later, he joined the militia to participate in the ongoing French and Indian War (1754−63), but didn't see any action. In 1769, Ethan and his brothers acquired some land in the New Hampshire Grants, despite the fact that the ownership of the land (and thus the legal ability to grant it) had actually been given to New York by King George. The New York provincial government attempted to exert its authority in the disputed area, demanding additional payment to validate ownership of the lands.

Local lads formed their own militia to fight off New Yorkers who tried to take what they thought was theirs. These locals called themselves the “Green Mountain Boys” and chose Allen as their leader.

As a result of their frequent skirmishes with the New Yorkers, Allen's militia members were combat veterans by the time the Revolutionary War began.

General George Washington needed artillery to help him drive the British army out of Boston. Benedict Arnold (among others) knew where there was some for the taking: Fort Ticonderoga in New York.

The Massachusetts Committee of Safety authorized Benedict Arnold to raise a force of 400 men and lead it to Fort Ticonderoga.

The Connecticut Committee of Public Safety asked Ethan Allen and Captain Edward Mott and their 200−300 soldiers to join with Arnold to capture the fort. Everyone met at Lake Champlain to complete the mission. There was one problem: Who would lead the attack?

Allen and Arnold both had egos the size of a New Hampshire Land Grant, each of which was about six miles square. They argued about who should lead the troops.

Eventually both swallowed their high opinions of themselves and compromised: They would share command.

On May 10, 1775, Allen, Arnold, and eighty-three troops approached Fort Ticonderoga at dawn. They surprised the British troops and captured the fort without firing a shot and without any injuries.

The Americans captured the cannons and shipped them to Boston. Arnold and Allen picked their next target: Fort St. John, at the northern end of Lake Champlain. Allen's part in the raid turned into a comedy of errors.

Arnold and fifty of his troops boarded a schooner armed with swivel guns and sailed toward the fort. Allen and 100 men loaded into four oar- and sail-powered boats to reach the fort. It was a four-day trip, for which Allen did not prepare adequately. He neglected to pack enough food for the attack. Not surprisingly, Arnold reached the fort first, captured it, and headed back to his new headquarters at Crown Point. He met Allen and his “armada” en route; they were still rowing toward Fort St. John. Arnold and Allen greeted one another, drank a couple toasts to Arnold's success, and went their separate ways.

Next, Allen traveled to Philadelphia to ask Congress to include the Green Mountain Boys in the Continental Army. Congress did—but rejected Allen as the Green Mountain Boys' leader. Uncharacteristically, Allen accepted the rebuke and accompanied the regiment in its Canadian invasion as a civilian scout. He was captured on September 25, 1775, by the British, and held as a prisoner until 1778. Even the American commander of the expedition was happy about Allen's predicament.

The war went on without Allen. After he was included in a general prisoner exchange in May 1778, he joined General George Washington's forces at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Washington applauded Allen and told him he would be in touch, which was just as much a brushoff then as it is today.

Allen had been away from Vermont for so long that he did not realize it had declared independence in 1777. The following year, Vermont enacted a Banishment Act that allowed the republic to seize and sell the property owned by Tories. The republic was busily confiscating property owned by Tories within its borders. This created the perfect job opening for Allen, who received an appointment as a judge to determine who qualified as a Tory. He even escorted some of the people found guilty of being Tories to New York to be handed over to British authorities. His judgeship did not last long, but he kept finding Tories on his own and turning them over to officials.

Between 1780 and his death in 1789, Allen wrote books and poems, remarried after his first wife's death, and sold his land. Allen almost ended up in debtors' prison a couple times, but he managed to squeak by until he died after a stroke.

Allen's original grave marker disappeared in the 1850s. The Vermont legislature authorized a replacement, which was placed in the graveyard where he is buried. But the exact location of his grave is unknown. Moreover, there is no known likeness of Ethan Allen in existence. That is fitting: The country had enough trouble dealing with the original.

North Carolina
1728−1796
The Edenton Tea Party

North Carolina was a hotbed of opposition to Britain. While the patriots in Boston were getting most of the press, the citizens of North Carolina were fomenting a revolution of their own. Penelope Barker spearheaded a boycott movement among women throughout the colonies—and she was not afraid to take a jab at men.

Barker was not a neophyte when it came to politics. She had spent a considerable amount of time around the leading politicians of Edenton during her childhood and three marriages. Her father was a prominent doctor and planter who taught her management skills and the need for personal responsibility. Her marriages reinforced those lessons.

She married in 1745 for the first time to John Hodgson (or Hodges), who had been married to her sister Elizabeth. He died soon after, and left Penelope as a nineteen-year-old pregnant widow with his and Elizabeth's two children, one of their own, and another one on the way.

Barker inherited a significant amount of land from Hodgson, which was uncommon at the time. Normally, widows received one-third of their deceased husbands' estates, primarily to enhance their chances of attracting another husband. That worked in Penelope Barker's case.

Husband number two was James Craven, a wealthy planter. He, too, left his entire estate to Barker.

The deaths of two husbands by the time she was only twenty-eight did not dissuade her from marrying a third time. After all, she was—at that young age—the richest woman in North Carolina. Attorney Thomas Barker became her third husband, with whom she had three more children.

Thomas traveled to England on business quite often. Penelope managed their affairs while he was gone, which gave her some valuable insights into the political realities of the time. Thomas was gone on one trip for seventeen years! He sailed to London in 1761 to serve as agent for the North Carolina colony. There was a British blockade of American ships in place at the time, which prevented him from returning to North Carolina. He finally made it back in 1778, long after Penelope's party ended.

Penelope Barker did not see why the men of North Carolina should bear the burden of rebellion during this tumultuous time. Her female friends agreed with her. Barker invited many of them to a tea party at the home of Elizabeth King to sign a document she had written proclaiming their intention to boycott British goods.

Barker was ahead of her time in recognizing the value of good public relations. She sent a copy of her declaration to a London newspaper, which published it in the form of text and cartoons lampooning their boycott. Consequently, the meeting and the boycott drew a lot of attention in the city. That was not surprising, since newspapers there portrayed Barker and her friends as bad mothers and loose women. Their ad hominem attack did not stop the women back in the colonies from supporting the ladies of Edenton.

Women in several other locations in America launched their own boycotts. The negative impact on the British economy got the attention of the king and Parliament, even if the Edenton Tea Party declaration did not.

Penelope Barker's appearance on the Revolutionary-era stage was brief. Eventually, the furor over her Tea Party document subsided. Her impact on the rebellion did not. She died in 1796 at age sixty-eight, but she will always be remembered as a leader who encouraged other women to get involved openly in the American movement for independence.

Although Penelope Barker gets most of the credit for the Edenton Tea Party, it took courage for all the women to sign the document. No doubt the fact that many of them were related to one another buoyed their courage due to moral support. They all deserve public acknowledgement. Here are their names:

• Anne Anderson
  
• Penelope Barker
  
• Sarah Beasley
  
• Elizabeth Beasely
  
• Ruth Benbury
  
• Lydia Bennet
  
• Jean Blair
  
• Mary Blount
  
• Rebecca Bondfield
  
• Lydia Bonner
  
• Mary Bonner
  
• Margaret Cathcart
  
• Abigale Charlton
  
• Grace Clayton
  
• Elizabeth Creacy
  
• Mary Creacy
  
• Elizabeth Crickett
  
• Tresia Cunningham
  
• Penelope Dawson
  
• Elizabeth Green
  
• Anne Hall
  
• Frances Hall
  
• Anne Haughton
  
• Sarah Hoskins
  
• Anne Horniblow
  
• Sarah Howe
  
• Sarah Howcott
  
• Mary Hunter
  
• Elizabeth Johnston
  
• Anne Johnstone
  
• F. Johnstone
  
• Mary Jones
  
• Mary Littedle
  
• Sarah Littlejohn
  
• Sarah Mathews
  
• Elizabeth P. Ormond
  
• M. Payne
  
• Elizabeth Patterson
  
• Margaret Pearson
  
• Mary Ramsay
  
• Elizabeth Roberts
  
• Elizabeth Vail
  
• Susannah Vail
  
• Sarah Valentine
  
• Marion Wells
  
• Jane Wellwood
  
• Mary Woolard