Following the raid on the Gaspee, Lt. Duddingston faced a court martial back in England. Dudingston and his crew were absolved of all blame by the Navy but still faced a civil trial with the Greenes in East Greenwich. The case rested on how much authority Dudingston had to seize contraband in Narrsagansett Bay. The Superior Court ruled Dudingston’s orders were only valid on the high seas and ordered Dudingston to repay the Greenes their 295 pounds plus the cost of the three trials. Dudingston wished to appeal to the King but the amount was too small for such an appeal and therefore, the sheriff of Newport County was able to collect the Greenes’ money.
In December 1772, a Baptist minister in Boston, Reverend John Allen, preached a sermon on Thanksgiving to make a political argument. He made five important points:
- Crown-appointed judges would always rule the way the ruling government wanted them to. In this case, in favor of the British Crown.
- Branches of the British government were uniting in a conspiracy to subvert American liberties.
- Parliament held no legislative power over Americans as there were no American representatives in Parliament. (Which led to the rallying cry “No taxation without representation!”)
- The Gaspee raid was self-defense, not rebellion.
- There was a high government conspiracy to convince the king of his divine right to rule.
I personally doubt the second and especially the last. From the point of view of the Crown, Rhode Island merchants broke the law and needed to be punished. I believe they stopped believing in the divine right to rule when King James II was deposed, nearly a century earlier. King George III was a decent person who believed he was the father of the American colonies and knew what was best for his “children.” To be fair, the Rhode Islanders did behave badly but then that begs the question which was the greater authority: the RI Charter or the British government across the Atlantic ocean?
The address was dedicated to the Earl of Dartmouth, the British Secretary of State for the colonies. Rev. Allen criticized Lord Dartmouth for making Governor Wanton identify and arrest those involved with the Gaspee raid.
Allen’s speech was published as a pamphlet titled On the Oration of the Beauties of Liberty. It was quite popular.
The pamphlet was among the top five bestselling pamphlets of the period between 1773-1776 and went through five printings in 1773.
On the other side of the Atlantic, British Prime Minister Lord North spoke in Parliament condemning the government for being too lenient with the colonies.
The aftermath of the Gaspee incident showed the colonists the limits of British authority. It inspired protesters in Boston and elsewhere. It also united the colonists in their fight against the tyranny of the Crown.
In May 1774, at a town meeting in Providence, colony leaders called for a congress of representatives from each of the colonies. The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia that September with representatives of 12 of the 13 colonies. On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island renounced allegiance to King George, the first of the colonies to do so.
From the first shots to today, the Gaspee incident has been viewed by Rhode Islanders as a source of pride. Our act of rebellion eventually led to the Revolutionary War and independence.
This year, in honor of the 250th anniversary, the Rhode Island Historical Society has some artifacts and memorabilia on display at the John Brown House at 52 Power Street in Providence.
Please excuse my poor cell phone pictures.
One case features handwritten early printed documents.
His Majesty’s Commission of Inquiry examining witnesses and other documents regarding the Gaspee affair from the RIHS manuscripts collection. This case also holds an account of the capture and burning of the ship as told by Ephraim Bowen, Benjamin Dunn, John B. Hopkins and Abraham Whipple in 1839, 67 years later.
As early as 1772 the incident was commemorated in song, possibly written by Theodore Foster.
Col. John Waterman’s journal recounts what he learned of the Gaspee raid.
The larger cases on the wall hold memorabilia commemorating the event.
So- was it resistance or treason? The first shots of the American Revolution or one of many incidents that led to the war? You decide! I think it depends on who you ask! To the British Crown, it was treason. To the men who risked their lives for freedom, it was resistance against a tyrannical government. Yes I think it was the opening salvo in the fight for independence but not the first shots of WAR. It seems to have been the last straw on both sides after similar incidents that had been going on since the Seven Years War.
If you’d like to do your own research to form an opinion, my list of sources is as follows:
Gaspee Days Committee. Gaspee Virtual Archives, http://www.gaspee.org/index.htm#Contents, 2021.
Paul Edward Parker. “What happened to the HMS Gaspee: First blood of the American Revolution or petty revenge?”, Providence Journal, p. A1, A20, June 12, 2022.
Rhode Island State Archives. Gaspee (in person) and Google Arts and Culture exhibit, https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/civics-and-education/for-educators/themed-collections/gaspee
Rhode Island Historical Society. “Resistance or Treason”, June 2022.
Russell J. DeSimone And Christian McBurney, “The Gaspee Affair: A Rhode Island Perspective on Its 250th Anniversary”, Small State Big History, June 10, 2022, http://smallstatebighistory.com/the-gaspee-affair-a-rhode-island-perspective-on-its-250th-anniversary/
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