Abstract
ON 2 October 1775, the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury was pleased to report a droll affair lately happened at Kinderhook, New York. In that small village south of Albany, a number of young women had gathered for a quilting bee when their peace was rudely disturbed: A young fellow dropped in on their frolic uninvited. This fellow-an enemy to the liberties of America, the Gazette reportedthen commenced a lengthy harangue, as usual, against the Continental Congress. The quilt makers apparently endured the young man's malediction for some time, but at length, exasperated, they laid hold of him, [and] stripped him naked to the waist. To punish him for his impudence, the girls tarred and feathered him. Well, not exactly. For want of tar, they covered him with molasses, and for feathers, took the downy tops of flags, which grow in the meadows, and coated him well.'
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