A revolution is a symphony. Voices banding together, fighting for liberty while having the courage and wisdom to speak out against tyranny.
Books, movies, and even Broadway musicals have been written about the most well-known voices of the American Revolution. But there are others. There are Americans—patriots—who risked just as much (if not more) than those well-known figures to see America become a free and independent nation. While their stories deserve to be told, they increasingly have begun to fade into the mist of history.
Penelope Barker is one of those patriots. She didn’t fight on a battlefield or draft legislation, but her contributions and sacrifices for the cause of American liberty were valuable and real and deserve to be told and remembered.
Which is exactly what the John Locke Foundation did.
As a liberty-minded think tank, producing historical short films isn’t the John Locke Foundation’s main area of expertise. But any policy or political expert worth their salt will tell you that knowing our history and the figures who have shaped it can be just as important as any piece of research or data.
October 2024 marked the 250th anniversary of the Edenton Tea Party. As Locke’s President and CEO, Donald Bryson, explains, “It was a proud moment: a group of determined women in a quiet coastal town stood up to British tyranny by rejecting unfair trade regulations and taxation without representation. They didn’t throw tea in the harbor—they signed their names to a declaration of principle. Their message was clear: taxation, even on trade, without consent is tyranny.”
A Letter to the King is the short film produced by the John Locke Foundation to tell the story of Penelope Barker and the Edenton Tea Party. This group of women in Edenton, North Carolina risked their reputations, livelihoods, and possibly their lives to send a message that British tyranny would not be tolerated any longer. The film captures the courage and determination of these colonial women, whose actions marked a turning point in the fight for independence.
While keeping our history alive is a perennial responsibility, producing A Letter to the King allowed Locke’s team to capitalize on local and statewide attention from the Edenton Tea Party’s anniversary and the upcoming national semi-quincentennial. The film, two trailers, social media posts, and the special Thanksgiving episode of John Locke’s weekly web news series, “The Debrief,” dedicated to the film have all garnered over 20,000 views across platforms. Locke’s team was also invited to an event with the Mayor of Edenton, the police chief, and more to air the film in the town where the events occurred.
Additionally, when President Donald Trump issued sweeping tariffs via executive order, Bryson was able to utilize the history and spirit of the Edenton Tea Party and A Letter to the King to write in the North Carolina Business Journal about the importance of respecting constitutional lawmaking.
In addition to A Letter to the King, Locke has also developed the North Carolina History Project, which has become a trusted online resource (especially for teachers and homeschooling families) for learning about North Carolina’s history.
One of Locke’s missions as an organization is to promote North Carolina’s culture and history. As the nation’s 250th anniversary fast approaches, the appetite and necessity for stories and history from the American revolution is growing. A Letter to the King not only tells an important story, it shows how courage, not position, wealth, or fame can be the determining factor in advancing liberty. For their incredible work producing A Letter to the King and the amazing response to the film, the John Locke Foundation is the winner of the SPN 2025 Communication Excellence Award for Excellence in Storytelling.
Every Fourth of July and Memorial Day, America’s history and significance take center stage. But it’s easy to trivialize or gloss over the true significance of our nation’s revolutionary origins and the sacrifices that revolution required. With A Letter to the King, the John Locke Foundation not only reminds us of an important chapter of North Carolina’s history, it re-establishes the weight and necessity of keeping America’s symphony of revolutionary voices alive.