'Road to Revolution' Series Shares Women’s Perspectives on the Boston Tea Party
By Mary Ryan | National Archives News
WASHINGTON, December 18, 2024 – As part of its Road to Revolution series, the National Archives in Washington, DC, hosted a conversation on December 14 between historical personages Abigail Adams and Sarah Bradlee Fulton. The two 18th-century figures were portrayed by Kim Hanley and Jill Lawrence of the American Historical Theatre, a Philadelphia-based ensemble of actor-historians who bring over 100 characters to life.
Jill Lawrence and Kim Hanley of the American Historical Theatre pose in front of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives in Washington, DC. (National Archives photo by Dorothy Dougherty)
Road to Revolution is both the name of a rotating document exhibition in the National Archives Rotunda and a series of public events leading up to the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday. The series highlights National Archives records that document major milestones and give historical context to the American Revolution, the Revolutionary War, and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
In the recent program at the National Archives, “A Boston Tea Party Discussion With Our Nation’s Founding Women,” the actors imagined a conversation between the two women taking place a year after the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773. Both ardent patriots during the Revolutionary War, Abigail Adams and Sarah Fulton discussed the Intolerable Acts imposed on the colonies by the British and how those acts ended up binding the colonies together. Their conversation covered the events leading to the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor, the “tea party” itself, and the boycott on tea adopted by women of the American colonies.
In addition, Adams and Fulton recalled making homespun cloth to replace British imports in response to the 1767 Townsend Acts, sharing the rallying cry of homespun—"Flax to linen! Fleece to woolen cloth!”
Sarah Bradlee Fulton (Jill Lawrence) and Abigail Adams (Kim Hanley) discuss using homegrown "Liberty tea" to support the patriot boycott of imported British tea. (National Archives photo by Dorothy Dougherty)
They also instructed attendees on how to make one’s own “Liberty tea” from raspberry leaves, mint, chamomile, rose hips, and other garden plants. Making Liberty tea was one way the colonists, as a community, could show their solidarity with the patriot cause. After the discussion, members of the audience were welcomed to see the tea leaves up close as well as touch and smell the tea.
“Road to Revolution looks closely at what it took for a group of colonists to declare independence from their home country, but it also explores the larger themes that were found in the leadup to the Revolutionary War and in major crossroads in our history in the centuries since,” Grace McCaffrey, Director of Public Programs and Special Events, said.
The monthly Road to Revolution programs leading up to July 4, 2026, will explore the American Revolution and other pivotal times in our country’s history. Examples of this may include: the women’s suffrage movement, civil rights, and other constitutional amendments.
Visit the National Archives online for more news, and view the National Archives Calendar for upcoming events.