When little Anna Green Winslow bought a hat in February, 1771, she bought one of “white holland with the feathers sewed on in a most curious manner, white and unsulleyed as the falling snow. As I am as we say a daughter of Liberty I chuse to wear as much of our own manufactory as posible.” Mercy Warren wrote to John Winthrop, in fine satire upon this determination of American women to give up all imports from Great Britain except the necessaries of life, a list of the articles a woman would deem it imperative to retain:-- An inventory clear Of all she needs Lamira offers here. Nor does she fear a rigid Catos frown When she lays by the rich embroidered gown And modestly compounds for just enough-- Perhaps some dozen of more slighty stuff. With lawns and lutestrings, blond and mecklin laces, Fringes and jewels, fans and tweezer cases, Gay cloaks and hats of every shape and size, Scrafs, cardinals and ribbons of all dyes. With ruffles stamped, and aprons of tambour, Tippets and handkerchiefs at least three score; With finest muslins that far India boasts, And the choice herbage from Chinesan coast. (But while the fragrant hyson leaf regales Who’ll wear the home-spun produce of the vales? For if ’twould save the nation from the curse Of standing troops--or name a plague still worse, Few can this choice delicious draught give up, Though all Medea’s poison fill the cup.) Add feathers, furs, rich satins and ducapes And head dresses in pyramidal shapes, Sideboards of plate and porcelain profuse, With fifty dittos that the ladies use. So weak Lamira and her wants are few, Who can refuse, they’re but the sex’s due. In youth indeed an antiquated page Taught us the threatening of a Hebrew page Gainst wimples, mantles, curls and crisping pins, But rank not these among our modern sins, For when our manners are well understood What in the scale is stomacher or hood? Tis true we love the courtly mien and air The pride of dress and all the debonair, Yet Clara quits the more dressed negligé And substitutes the careless polanê Until some fair one from Britannia’s court Some jaunty dress or newer taste import, This sweet temptation could not be withstood, Though for her purchase paid her father’s blood. After the war had really begun, Mrs. John Adams, writing July 31, 1777, tells of an astonishing action of Boston women, plainly the result of all these revolutionary tea-notions:--