Women of the American Revolution: Tea Parties and Teatown (for adults)

Join William Matthews for an invigorating talk, tied to the Teatown area’s revolutionary history. Discover the forgotten story of a series of women-led “tea parties” that erupted across New York’s Hudson Valley during the American Revolution, as women confronted merchants, seized tea, and enforced what they considered fair prices. These dramatic episodes reveal how women transformed their authority within the household into direct political action, while the same Atlantic smuggling networks that supplied illicit “Dutch tea” increasingly carried the weapons and gunpowder needed to sustain the Revolution. The Golden Rock and the Hudson Hollows connects these local protests to the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, revealing how contraband commerce helped undermine British imperial authority, supply the American war effort, and reshape women’s political participation in Revolutionary New York.

William Matthews is an independent researcher specializing in women’s participation in the American Revolution and the editor and producer of the history podcast New York, Quebec and the Water Route to the Center of the World. He has served as an Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher and History Department Chair in New York City and has more than 15 years of experience as an educator.

William has received scholarships and awards from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute, and the Fort Ticonderoga War College. He has presented his research at national history and education conferences and maintains memberships in the French Colonial Historical Society, the Society for Military History, and the Holland Society of New York.

Pay what you wish, starting at $5/person. Your donation supports Teatown and is greatly appreciated!