The cartoon of the “Society of Patriotic Women at Edenton, North Carolina (1774)”
portrayed the way that the British viewed patriot activism during the period leading up to the Revolutionary War. In this image, we can see that the artist has portrayed women of various social backgrounds, and a slave woman, in a scornful manner, as negligent, promiscuous and ugly. The way the British have depicted the women of Edenton causes one to come to the assumption that the British think nothing of the patriots’ activism; the illustrator conveys to the reader/viewer that the American patriots are dim-witted slobs that have no sense of self-respect. The “Society of Patriotic women at Edenton, North Carolina” satirized women and implied to the reader that Britain’s opinion of the American cause is not one of representation or independent rule, but of chaos and irresponsibility.
It is evident that the British view of the patriots in the American colonies was one of disrespect and contempt. The British further establish this view by depicting patriot women as drunk and ugly, and engaged in acts of perversion followed with consorting with those of another race on equal footing. As one comes across the woman in the middle of the image revealing her cleavage, and the baby under the table being licked by a dog that is urinating, he/she may interpret that women in the Americas were pictured as rowdy, scandalous, disreputable, negligent, and irresponsible. The British were successful in using this propaganda to create a representation of an American population that has no values or moral fiber at all, showing other people that America was definitely not a respectable or reputable place.
Although the British viewed the patriot’s activism in this manner, women actually played a significant role during the revolutionary war by raising funds and providing necessary supplies to the revolutionary army. 
They were also part of a deployment effort to recruit and influence the men to fight in combat. However, Britain’s depiction of them as ugly and vulnerable to the patriot’s foolishness was not regarding gender bias, but that of their loyalty to the colonial foundation.
This is a classic example of the media: a cartoon, ridiculing and mocking the roles of women and manipulating the facts and developing it as propaganda for a specific purpose. In this case, the purpose was to falsify the true intentions of the American patriots, showing them as being disgraceful and immoral. 
This exemplifies the fact that history is the account of usually one side of an event and can be very biased depending on who writes the record.
Links:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6803
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/aw05e/d12.html
http://www.ahpcs.org/imprint1998.htm
http://norfleet01.tripod.com/norfleet3.htm
Commentator Post:
Our group (group 5) met in the Innovation Hall room 204 to discuss the “Women of Edenton” image. We convened for about an hour and assigned the appropriate roles. As a group, we came to the decision that Andrew would be the draft writer, Joe would be the editor, Diana would be the link researcher, Eyma would be the image researcher, and Katie would be the commentator. In scanning the image, we found details that helped us to further understand what was happening in the foreground, middle ground, and background. We carefully picked apart each element and debated their significance. We took each piece of the image and discussed why the artist depicted the women in such a promiscuous and ugly way. For example, we concluded that the baby and the dog under the table were included in order to depict the irresponsibility and unsanitary behavior of the women.
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