“Tarred and Feathered” at a Quilting Bee

Here’s a rather amusing account of something that happened in New York in September 1775. A young man was “tarred and feathered” (but not with tar and feathers) by some young women for badmouthing the Continental Congress at a quilting bee:

The following droll affair lately happened at Kinderhook, New York. A young fellow, an enemy to the liberties of America, going to a quilting frolic, where a number of young women were collected, and he the only man in company, began his aspersions on Congress, as usual, and held forth some time on the subject, till the girls, exasperated at his impudence, laid hold of him, stripped him naked to the waist, and instead of tar, covered him with molasses, and for feathers took the downy tops of flags, which grow in the meadows, and coated him well and then let him go. He has prosecuted every one of them, and the matter has been tried before Justice S—–. We have not as yet heard his worship’s judgment. It is said Parson Buel’s daughter is concerned [i.e., involved] in the affair.


Source

Diary of the American Revolution, vol. 1, p. 141.