Okla-homey
6/9/2008, 06:07 AM
June 9, 1772: Rhode Islanders burn British revenue cutter
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/9528/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz29.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
236 years ago, on June 9 1772, near Providence, the Royal customs cutter Gaspee ran aground, and Rhode Islanders, angered by continued British attempts to tax them in ways they perceived as unfair, boarded and burned it, wounding the ship’s captain.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8568/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz8.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Rhode Islanders burning the grounded British revenue cutter "Gaspee" off Warwick R.I.
Gaspee had been pursuing Rhode Island Captain Thomas Lindsey’s packet from Newport for non-payment of royal taxes, when it ran aground off Namquit Point in Providence's Narragansett Bay on June 9. That evening, John Brown, an Rhode Island merchant angered by high British taxes on his goods, rowed out to Gaspee with eight long-boats with muffled oars and as a many as 67 Rhode Islanders and seized control of the ship, shooting its Scottish captain, Lieutenant William Dudingston, in the abdomen. After sending the wounded captain and his crew to shore at Pawtuxet, the Americans set Gaspee on fire.
The Brits tried to investigate the crime, but no one would talk so the investigation was concluded with no indictments.
This event led to Rhode Island, the colony originally founded by Baptists who were religious dissenters who peeled off from the Puritans of Massachusetts, becoming the first North American colony to renounce its allegiance to King George III four years later on May 4, 1776.
Background:
Rhode Island served as a mercantile center of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century. West Indian molasses was made into rum in Rhode Island distilleries, which was then traded to slave traders on the West African coast in exchange for human beings.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6756/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz42.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Typical loading arrangement on an Atlantic slave ship. The conditions were inhuman to say the least and many were lost enroute in the cramped, hot and insufferable holds.
After shipping their human cargo across the notorious middle passage from West Africa across the Atlantic to the Caribbean islands, Rhode Island merchants would then sell those African people who survived the slave ships’ wretched conditions and rough ocean crossing to West Indian sugar cane plantation owners who needed cheap manpower in exchange for a fresh shipment of molasses.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3774/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz3.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The Slave Triangles. The RED one illustrates the R.I. - Africa - West Indies circuit. The GREEN one illustrates the simultaneous England - Africa - West Indies circuit which operated basically the same way. Only difference on that one is the Brits shipped finished goods such as textiles, tobacco and whiskey to Africa in exchange for humans it shipped to the West Indies.
Desire to protect this lucrative triangle trade led Rhode Islanders to bristle at British attempts to tighten their control over their colonies’ commerce, beginning with the Sugar Act of 1764, which tightened trade regulations and raised the royal tax on molasses.
Two major incidents involving Rhode Islanders took place during the ensuing colonial protests of British regulation in the late 1760s and early 1770s. On June 10, 1768, British customs officials confiscated John Hancock’s sloop Liberty because it had previously been used to smuggle Spanish wine, inciting a riot in the streets of Boston.
Four years later, the above mentioned burning of the British tax ship near Providence occured.
Rhode Island mercantile strength caused almost as much trouble for the new American nation as it had the old British empire. Because it had independent wealth and trade coming through its two extremely profitable and important ports of Providence and Newport, Rhode Island was the only small state that could theoretically survive independent of the proposed federal union in 1787. In fact, Rhode Island was the only colony who sent no delegates to the Constitutional convention.
The state had no desire to join the economic common market proposed under the US Constitution and thus lose income in the form of import duties to the new federal government. As a result, Rhode Island was the last state to ratify the Constitution in 1790, when it was finally confronted with the prospect of the greater financial impositions it would suffer being treated as a foreign country in the middle of the United States.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/7316/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz5.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Rhode Island state flag. It features an anchor, both the traditional symbol for "hope" as well as indicative of R.I.'s nautical heritage. The main color is white which is a memorial to the white trim worn by R.I. troops on their revolutionary war uniforms.
In other words, you could make a colorable argument that Rhode Island was extorted into ratifying the Constitution and joining the federal union on May 29, 1790 when it became the last former colony to ratify the new American Constitution -- more than 14 years after declaring her independence from Great Britain on this day in 1776.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5664/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz30.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Rhode Island state capitol in Providence.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7717/insane7zo6mq.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/9528/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz29.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
236 years ago, on June 9 1772, near Providence, the Royal customs cutter Gaspee ran aground, and Rhode Islanders, angered by continued British attempts to tax them in ways they perceived as unfair, boarded and burned it, wounding the ship’s captain.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8568/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz8.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Rhode Islanders burning the grounded British revenue cutter "Gaspee" off Warwick R.I.
Gaspee had been pursuing Rhode Island Captain Thomas Lindsey’s packet from Newport for non-payment of royal taxes, when it ran aground off Namquit Point in Providence's Narragansett Bay on June 9. That evening, John Brown, an Rhode Island merchant angered by high British taxes on his goods, rowed out to Gaspee with eight long-boats with muffled oars and as a many as 67 Rhode Islanders and seized control of the ship, shooting its Scottish captain, Lieutenant William Dudingston, in the abdomen. After sending the wounded captain and his crew to shore at Pawtuxet, the Americans set Gaspee on fire.
The Brits tried to investigate the crime, but no one would talk so the investigation was concluded with no indictments.
This event led to Rhode Island, the colony originally founded by Baptists who were religious dissenters who peeled off from the Puritans of Massachusetts, becoming the first North American colony to renounce its allegiance to King George III four years later on May 4, 1776.
Background:
Rhode Island served as a mercantile center of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century. West Indian molasses was made into rum in Rhode Island distilleries, which was then traded to slave traders on the West African coast in exchange for human beings.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6756/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz42.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Typical loading arrangement on an Atlantic slave ship. The conditions were inhuman to say the least and many were lost enroute in the cramped, hot and insufferable holds.
After shipping their human cargo across the notorious middle passage from West Africa across the Atlantic to the Caribbean islands, Rhode Island merchants would then sell those African people who survived the slave ships’ wretched conditions and rough ocean crossing to West Indian sugar cane plantation owners who needed cheap manpower in exchange for a fresh shipment of molasses.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3774/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz3.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The Slave Triangles. The RED one illustrates the R.I. - Africa - West Indies circuit. The GREEN one illustrates the simultaneous England - Africa - West Indies circuit which operated basically the same way. Only difference on that one is the Brits shipped finished goods such as textiles, tobacco and whiskey to Africa in exchange for humans it shipped to the West Indies.
Desire to protect this lucrative triangle trade led Rhode Islanders to bristle at British attempts to tighten their control over their colonies’ commerce, beginning with the Sugar Act of 1764, which tightened trade regulations and raised the royal tax on molasses.
Two major incidents involving Rhode Islanders took place during the ensuing colonial protests of British regulation in the late 1760s and early 1770s. On June 10, 1768, British customs officials confiscated John Hancock’s sloop Liberty because it had previously been used to smuggle Spanish wine, inciting a riot in the streets of Boston.
Four years later, the above mentioned burning of the British tax ship near Providence occured.
Rhode Island mercantile strength caused almost as much trouble for the new American nation as it had the old British empire. Because it had independent wealth and trade coming through its two extremely profitable and important ports of Providence and Newport, Rhode Island was the only small state that could theoretically survive independent of the proposed federal union in 1787. In fact, Rhode Island was the only colony who sent no delegates to the Constitutional convention.
The state had no desire to join the economic common market proposed under the US Constitution and thus lose income in the form of import duties to the new federal government. As a result, Rhode Island was the last state to ratify the Constitution in 1790, when it was finally confronted with the prospect of the greater financial impositions it would suffer being treated as a foreign country in the middle of the United States.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/7316/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz5.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Rhode Island state flag. It features an anchor, both the traditional symbol for "hope" as well as indicative of R.I.'s nautical heritage. The main color is white which is a memorial to the white trim worn by R.I. troops on their revolutionary war uniforms.
In other words, you could make a colorable argument that Rhode Island was extorted into ratifying the Constitution and joining the federal union on May 29, 1790 when it became the last former colony to ratify the new American Constitution -- more than 14 years after declaring her independence from Great Britain on this day in 1776.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5664/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz30.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Rhode Island state capitol in Providence.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7717/insane7zo6mq.jpg