1. The Burning of the Gaspee
A Presentation of the
Gaspee Days Committee
V2.2004 Left Mouse
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Advance Slides
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2. The Burning of the Gaspee
Overview
• The Colony of Rhode Island
• The Attack on the Gaspee
• And what led to….
INDEPENDENCE
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3. The Burning of the Gaspee
The Colony of Rhode Island gave its
people many freedoms:
• freedom to elect their own Governor
• freedom for their own court system
• freedom for their own religions
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4. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Over the years, people of Rhode Island
became used to doing things their own
way.
• But, this gave the British problems later
when they tried to tax the American
Colonies.
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5. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Rhode Island depended on sea-trade of
items that now were being taxed.
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6. The Burning of the Gaspee
• People of Rhode Island often smuggled to
avoid paying these taxes.
• The HMS Gaspee was a British Royal
Navy ship sent to the American coast to
stop smuggling.
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7. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The Gaspee wasted no time in stopping,
searching, and seizing all types of boats
and ships in the bay.
• The crew of the Gaspee would threaten
and beat-up the men on the ships they
seized.
• They also stole livestock, firewood, and
food from local farmers.
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8. The Burning of the Gaspee
• This alarmed the Providence merchants.
• Wealthy Providence merchant and sea-
trader John Brown and other ‘Sons of
Liberty’ made a plan to get rid of the
Gaspee.
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9. The Burning of the Gaspee
• On the afternoon of June 9th, 1772, one
of Brown’s ships, the Hannah, left
Newport and headed for Providence.
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10. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The Captain of the Gaspee demanded
that the ship stop to be searched.
• The Hannah refused, and a chase up
Narragansett Bay began.
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11. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The ships reached Namquid Point where
its sandbar was covered by a high tide.
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12. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The Hannah was lightweight, empty-of-
cargo and sat high in the water.
• The Hannah easily sailed over the point,
inviting the Gaspee to pursue.
• The deeper-hulled Gaspee followed, ran
hard aground, and became stuck.
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13. The Burning of the Gaspee
• After suitable insults were exchanged,
the Hannah quickly proceeded up the
river to Providence and reported the
plight of the British schooner to John
Brown.
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14. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Brown had his ship captains round up
several large longboats, and sent out a
drummer to recruit people of Providence
to join in a raid on the much-hated ship.
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15. The Burning of the Gaspee
• That night a large crowd of merchants,
sea captains, and younger men met at the
Sabin Tavern to plan the attack.
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16. The Burning of the Gaspee
• That night, seven or eight boats rowed
silently down the river on their mission of
destruction.
• Each boat carried eight men with their
faces blackened with camouflage.
• In the darkness, the boats arrived at
Namquid Point, where the Gaspee sat
helplessly aground.
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17. The Burning of the Gaspee
• By 1 am, the sentry aboard the Gaspee
spotted the approaching boats and called
out the alarm.
• Capt. Abraham Whipple, leader of the
attack, hailed the ship and declared that
he was there to arrest the Captain of the
Gaspee.
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18. The Burning of the Gaspee
• A few shots were fired from the Gaspee in
response.
• One young raider took aim with his
musket and wounded the Captain of the
Gaspee with a single shot.
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19. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Then men in the boats scrambled on
board the Gaspee and soon captured her
crew with no loss of life.
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20. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The crew of the Gaspee were tied up, set
in the boats, and kept as prisoners
overnight in Pawtuxet Village.
• They were all released in the morning.
• John Brown, Abe Whipple, and others
plundered through the papers and the
few valuables aboard the Gaspee.
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22. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Flames soon reached the gunpowder
storage, and a loud explosion ripped the
Gaspee apart.
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23. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The boats returned to Providence at dawn,
and the men were warned to keep silent
about what happened.
• To their great credit, Rhode Island citizens
kept mum about the events, even though
many of the raiders were well-known.
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24. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Of the approximately 64 patriots that
took part in the burning of the Gaspee, we
know the names of only 26.
• Perhaps you are related to one of
them….. and Abraham Whipple
Captain Harris
Joseph Brown
Paul Allen
John Mawney
Shepard
Turpin Hopkins
John B.Smith
Joseph Bucklin
Ephraim Bowen
Simeon H. Olney
Robert Dunn
Justin Sutton
SamuelBriggs
Aaron Jacobs
Benjamin Page
Thomas Potter
Joseph Jenckes
Rufus Greene
Abial Brown
Simeon Swan
Joseph Kilton
Benj. J. Tillinghast
John Brown
Nathan Salisbury
Hammond 24
25. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Rhode Island leaders quickly realized
that the British would be furious at them
for the burning of one of His Majesty’s
schooners.
• The Rhode Island Governor and others
quickly made plans for ‘damage control’.
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26. The Burning of the Gaspee
• By offering a reward for the attackers,
Rhode Islanders pretended to be
outraged about the attack.
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27. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Officials also claimed they did not know
who the attackers were, even though the
names were widely known.
• Even so, the British still did not trust
Rhode Island to bring the raiders to
justice.
• The King offered an even larger reward.
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28. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The British also created a commission of
inquiry to find out who the attackers
were.
• This commission of inquiry bypassed the
local Rhode Island courts that the British
didn’t trust.
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29. The Burning of the Gaspee
• They were able to charge suspects….
• and send them to England to stand trial
for charges of treason.
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30. The Burning of the Gaspee
• This bypass of local courts, and of
sending suspects out of the local area for
trial, would make defense impossible.
• Local courts tended to side with the
defendant; British courts would not.
• If sent away for trial, persons charged
would find it hard to have witnesses to
help prove their innocence.
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31. The Burning of the Gaspee
• A trial by a local jury of peers was a long-
established right for all Englishmen.
• The bypassing of American courts, and
the threat of removal of these rights of
local trial created alarm in all the other
American Colonies as well.
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32. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Shortly afterwards, Virginia created the
first of the permanent Committees of
Correspondence to discuss such threats to
the Colonies.
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33. The Burning of the Gaspee
• This was the first step towards uniting the
separate Colonies that would later join
together as the …...
United States of America.
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34. The Burning of the Gaspee
• And it was the eventual result of the
actions of Rhode Island patriots…...
‘Those That Burned the Gaspee’
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35. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Meanwhile, Rhode Island officials
scrambled to protect both their freedoms
and the identities of citizen raiders.
• The officials interfered with the British
commission of inquiry.
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36. The Burning of the Gaspee
• Rhode Island officials gave excuses to
witnesses so that they did not appear
before the commission.
• They arranged for witnesses to testify
against what other people said before the
commission.
• Other witnesses were threatened so that
they did not appear at all.
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37. The Burning of the Gaspee
• The commission of inquiry never could
get enough evidence to identify any of the
attackers of the Gaspee.
• The commission gave up and went home
by June of 1773.
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38. The Burning of the Gaspee
• No one ever stood trial for the destruction
of the Gaspee.
• This was the result of uncooperative
Rhode Island citizens, judges, and
officials.
• It was America’s….
‘First Blow for Freedom’®
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39. The Burning of the Gaspee
For further information on the Gaspee
Affair visit the Gaspee Virtual Archives at:
www.gaspee.org
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40. The Burning of the Gaspee
written and directed by
Dr. John Concannon
“Royal American Medley”
background music courtesy of
The Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps
Fort Myer, Virginia
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