Not only is Margaret Ker an award-winning essay writer who competed at the state level of the Daughters of the American Revolution contest, but she’s a rising eighth grade student who spent many hours during her summer vacation volunteering at the Atonement Church Food Pantry in Asbury Park.
Even more, when she returns to her classes at St. Leo the Great School in Lincroft next month, she will be representing the school as an Ambassador, providing tours and assisting with campus needs throughout the year.
Margaret, the daughter of Andrew and Christina Ker of Lincroft, and younger sister of Lily, took the top award for seventh grade essays in the DAR competition, winning for the Shrewsbury-Towne chapter who praised the work of each of the winners in the 5th through 8th grades. The school is dedicated to ensuring all students learn American history in addition to each of their other subjects and the DAR chapter’s winners in all categories went to students from St. Leo’s.
Margaret took a different tack from most of the essayist who entered the contest. Each had been given rigid instructions to follow when writing about a Tea Party in Edenton, NC, similar to the well-publicized Boston Tea Party during the Revolution.
While many spoke in their essays about how the women interacted with each other, each showing excellence in describing the time, fashions and habits of the time, Margaret’s essay was a letter to the Continental Congress, as one of the Revolutionary woman who was part of the Edenton tea party. She was positive and outright in her letter, making it clear to the representatives that the North Carolina women were strong and ready to forgo their tea and anything else that showed less than dedication to the cause of freedom.
This was not Margaret’s first contest entry; she has been authoring essays for the DAR competition every year since she was in the fifth grade. While the curriculum at St. Leo’s places an emphasis on history, and included the essay competition as a class assignment, Margaret said she herself is fascinated by the Revolutionary era, especially the roles that women played during that period.
She loves to write as well as doing all the research it takes to ensure her writing is complete, but she admits that she simply likes “getting to the bottom of questions and learning the facts about complex questions.”
Besides writing and maintaining honor roll status in all her classes, Margaret is an avid softball and soccer player, playing on travel teams in both sports. Not certain of her future after high school, Margaret does know she plans on going to college and is looking towards law, business or writing as a career in the future .
The enthusiastic young teenager is proud and happy about her win as the state champion for seventh grade students in the DAR’s contest and adds happily “I’m looking forward to next year’s contest already.”
Express Dispatch to The Continental Congress, Noas Sitting at Philadelphia October 26,1774
Gentlemen, it is with much pleasure that I, Mrs. Winifred Wiggins Hoskins, send you this letter to alert you of a most glorious gathering of patriotic ladies recently here in the city of Edenton, North Carolina.
Whereas we, affectionate, reasoning, American mothers know the value of a tender embrace for one’s children, our “Mother England, knows only a monster’s cruelty and forces upon us “dreadful, dismal, doleful, dolorous and dollar-less” times.
Our “mother” has given us no choice but to voice our displeasure with her evil ways. Although some may think it improper, our womanly virtue has led us to put our feelings onto parchment.
The American blood that courses through our American veins filled us with American courage to state clearly that as of the first of January,177 5, we will nor import or use any goods imported from England, especially East Indian tea.
We further declare that any persons nor complying with this resolve are enemies to their country!
Coming to these dramatic resolutions was no simple fear, so, I humbly relate the circumstances of this most remarkable meeting here within.
When my good friend Mrs. Penelope Barker invited me to attend a meeting of Edenton’s ladies at Mrs. Elizabeth King’s home to draft resolutions of resistance to British tyranny, a joyous anticipation fil1ed my heart. I heartily accepted Mrs. Barker’s invitation, and upon the meeting’s commencement on October 25th,l accepted the nomination to serve as the Association’s secretary.
A sense of patriotic duty washed over me as I realized it would be my hand that would draft a bold statement aimed at affecting the peace and happiness of our country by proclaiming a complete and total boycott of England’s heinous wares.
Mrs. King’s home is a quaint and handsome wooden structure located between the court-house and Edenton Bay and ideally suited to host a decorated gathering. The fifty-one ladies that responded to Mrs. Barker’s invitation were of the finest influence and sentiment in North Carolina. These women, models of virtue, refinement and high-born courage, acquitted themselves with the grace, dignity and patriotic zeal that defines our lives as American women. We know no “place” other than at the center of righteousness, for neither man nor woman can afford to be indifferent upon occasions that threaten our liberties and rights.
Upon entering the dining room and seeing this august assembly of “daughters of liberty,” I knew at once I had made the right decision to attend. As I looked upon the homespun dresses of American thread and fabric each woman wore, I welled up with immense pride. My thoughts flew to the occasion of when I wove my own, American, homespun wedding dress from the flax grown upon my father’s farm in Halifax county. As I reminisced, the scent of a familiar brew pulled me from my reverie. A contented happiness washed over me as I realized it was the smell of our ladies’ most beloved, patriotic experiment: a concoction of “tea” made from our native North Carolinian yapon shrub, sage and wild raspberry leaves we’ve named “Hyperion” that has replaced English tea.
Once we had settled in our chairs, Mrs. Barker, our assemblage’s presiding officer, called the meeting to order. She announced that tea would be served first and that each member must state her choice: either the tea imported from England or the local “Hyperion-” With one voice every loyal soul declined the poisonous English brew and asked for the homemade variety.
Having put our feelings on record, we enjoyed our refreshments with grace and proceeded to draw up our resolutions in a way that could leave no doubt as to our American loyalty. I began writing notes about the proceedings and with each stroke of my quill, I could feel the chains of British slavery being unshackled as I scribed words of defiance.
We proclaimed that we will do everything in our power to promote the welfare of our beloved American liberties, and that our devotion to country and liberty was unbreakable. Listening to the enthusiastic, sober voices of the remarkable women in the room stirred me with the unique sense of American pride I’ve felt since my days of girlhood.
Only in America can a woman look back upon her life and see so much abundant evidence of God’s providence. As I wrote, each word upon the parchment stood out as a beacon that called for a country full of freedom, liberty and justice for all men and women, and that it was imperative that we join in a triumphant chorus asserting our unalienable, natural rights.
After carefully drafting our resolves to forswear East India tea and the importation of British manufactures, we ceremoniously filled Mrs. Barker’s tea-caddy with tea and poured it upon the ground in solidarity with our brother and sister patriots that have held “tea parties” throughout the colonies. Afterward we retired into Mrs. King’s parlor where I prepared a most delicious “Liberty Punch” in my family’s heirloom punch bowl to toast our noble American Congress, the brave ladies of Edenton and American liberty
Fifty-one ladies, myself included, signed our resolves, and not one of us regrets our decision. Some have mocked us, calling us derelict mothers, uncouth and uppity, along with many other, hurtful insults. Yet, in the face of derision and contempt, let it be known that not a single Edenton lady wavers in her commitment to achieving American liberty. We happily drink our Hyperion and wear our American cloth. For we, the Patriotic Ladies of Edenton, are neither slaves to the teacup, nor are we willing to be slaves to England. May God Bless America and The Continental Congress!
In Liberty., Mrs. Winifred Wiggins Hoskins
Tired of Facebook? You can also Find ViniVidiScripto on the Following Platforms …
Margaret Margaret Margaret Margaret Margaret Margaret Margaret Margaret
