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The Gaspee Affair – Protesting the Navigation Acts

November 3, 2025

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The burning of the British vessel, the HMS Gaspee on June 9, 1772 was a protest to the British Navigation Acts. In the colonies the Navigation Acts were meant to force Americans to only trade with the British Empire. The Rhode Island economy was based in trade with the wider Atlantic. Just selling to the Empire was not enough for their molasses trade. That created a tension with the colonies (and Rhode Island in particular) and led to an increase in piracy and smuggling.

The acts permitted the customs inspectors to board any colonial ship. In February of 1772, William Duddingston, the commander of the HMS Gaspee, arrived in Rhode Island. He used this permission to search any vessel as he saw fit. Merchants objected to his searches and seizures of their goods. The local Sons of Liberty, looked for an opportunity to retaliate.

Their chance came in June 1772. The HMS Gaspee was alone and without a local pilot, but it chased a local boat called the Hannah . The Hannah could manage the shallower water, but the Gaspee ran aground. The Gaspee would be released by the tide early the next morning,. While the ship was in a vulnerable position, the Sons of Liberty rowed out and attacked the crew. Captain Duddingston was wounded. After all crew members were taken off the ship, the Sons of Liberty set fire to the Gaspee.

The event was too blatant to ignore and Parliament wanted prosecution of the attackers. Some famous names associated with the attackers are John Brown, Abraham Whipple and Ephraim Bowen. Although there was reward money offered, Rhode Islanders refused to cooperate with the British and no one was ever prosecuted. Duddingston, however, was courtmartialed.

This event led to the Committees of Correspondence, a network that united the colonies in their resistance to British rule.

Every year for 50 year the village of Pawtuxet (near Cranston and Warwick) celebrates this event with Gaspee Days and a Parade.

Resources.

Park, Stephen. The Burning of His Majesty’s Schooner Gaspee. Westholme, Yardley PA, 2013.

Secretary of State’s website: https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/civics-and-education/for-educators/themed-collections/gaspee-timeline

The Conspiracy to Destroy the Gaspee

The Taunton Flag: Liberty and Union

December 22, 2024

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“We have just received the following intelligence from Taunton, ‘that on Friday last a Liberty Pole of 112 Feet long was raised there, on which . . . a Union Flag [was] flying, with the Words LIBERTY and UNION thereon. . . . ‘“ (1). So wrote an unnamed correspondent from Taunton in the pages of the Boston Evening Post’s edition of October 24, 1774.

Sometimes antique shopping can lead to a history lesson. I look for bicentennial items and I was attracted to a glass with an early American flag – the Taunton Flag. According to the text on the back of the glass, Taunton residents took the English Red Ensign and added the words “Liberty and Union.” They raised a flagpole on the Taunton Common and one October 21st, 1774 and they hoisted the flag as a symbol of their dissatisfaction with Britain.

The Old Colony Museum in Taunton has posted good information on the flag. Colonial self-rule was threatened by the passage of laws like the Stamp Act in 1765. British troops were sent to Boston to maintain order when colonists began to protest that their rights as Englishmen were threatened. The “Intolerable Acts” closed Boston Harbor to shipping and the 1692 Massachusetts charter was revoked. Conventions were held in counties to coordinate resistance. The Bristol County convention was held in Taunton. At that time the sovereignty of George II was accepted, but Parliament was blamed. Taunton relied upon the maritime industry and the closure of the port of Boston impacted their economy. Loyalists were blamed and several notable ones were run out of town. The flag was created by the Sons of Liberty, and was the first flag to fly in protest to British rule while still remaining loyal to the crown.

Some sources believe that the Taunton Flag symbolized that at that time local Americans were not looking for independence but were looking to maintain their union with Great Britain. They wanted to keep their liberties and Englishmen.

For more information: https://www.oldcolonyhistorymuseum.org