A series of events will occur on both Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26

Friday, October 25

• 10:00- Opening Ceremony- Courthouse Green- Opening ceremony and student engagement program for the district's fourth grade classes. The occasion marked by ringing the historic Courthouse bell 250 times to signify each year of the anniversary.
• 1:00- "A Society of Patriotic Ladies"- 1767 Chowan County Courthouse- Living history program demonstrating how North Carolinians protested British taxation efforts prior to the American Revolution. Featuring costumed interpreters from North Carolina State Historic Sites.
• 5:30- Keynote Lecture- 1736 St. Paul's Episcopal Church- Speaker program featuring Margaret Pritchard, retired Deputy Chief Curator for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Ms. Pritchard's lecture will focus on the 1775 satirical print, "A Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton in North Carolina" in its social and historical context.  

Saturday, October 26

• 10:00-250 Years of Edenton-Chowan Women Making History Parade- South Broad Street- Parade celebrating 250 years of impactful female leadership in Edenton and Chowan County. Featuring Colonial Williamsburg Fife & Drum Corps, the Tryon Palace Fife & Drum Corps, and Bill Caudill, Bagpiper.
• 11:00- "Acts of Rebellion"- 1800/1827 James Iredell House- Living history program with lively, hands-on demonstrations of the many ways in which women participated in North Carolina's protest against the hated British tax on tea. Featuring costumed interpreters from North Carolina State Historic Sites.
• 11:30- Within Our Power Book Launch- Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library- Launch of the new children's book, Within Our Power: The Edenton Ladies' Tea Party by Sally Walker, illustrated by Jonathan Voss, and produced by the North Carolina Department of Archives & History. Storytime and book signing.
• 4:00- Celebratory Concert- Colonial Waterfront Park- Outdoor concert featuring performances by Jamie Laval, Fiddler, and the Grammy-nominated, three-time I.B.M.A. Award-winning all-female bluegrass band, Sister Sadie.
• 7:00- Fireworks Show- Colonial Waterfront Park

All activities in this schedule are grant-funded and are free and open to the public. 

The national 250th anniversary will be commemorated in 2026; however, given North Carolina’s rich history in our nation’s founding, we will be using the next two years to recognize our state’s significance in the events leading up to 1776. We will reflect upon our country’s founding ideals and explore the pivotal events, places, and voices that have shaped and continue to shape our state and country from the Halifax Resolves to the civil rights movement and beyond.

On October 25, 1774, a group of 51 women in Edenton, North Carolina, under the leadership of Penelope Barker, drafted a resolution to boycott British imports, including tea and cloth. They sent their final signed resolution off to England. Although less well-known than the Boston Tea Party, this act demonstrated extraordinary courage by the women, who did not hide their identities and signed their real names.

We would love to see you there! Please join us for this exciting event. Additionally, we invite you to share information about the Edenton Tea Party on your own social media channels, using the resources below!

Our logos are available for use, and we ask that you follow our brand guidelines closely to create clear and helpful communication to your audience. 

Stay up to date on the latest information about the event and our plans by following our social media profiles:

Instagram: @america250nc and @ncculture

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/america250nc

When posting, we encourage you to use the hashtags #HalifaxDays and #America250NC, as well as tag our accounts listed above in your posts to ensure we’re reaching as many people as possible!