S2E3 - Road to War

Hello and welcome to the Story of Rhode Island. The podcast that tells you the story of Rhode Island’s fascinating history. In last week’s episode we saw Governor Samuel Cranston help Rhode Island overcome a series of challenges that plagued their colony since its founding, enabling it to create a thriving economy. However, as we jump into episode 3, we are introduced to an entirely new set of problems that Rhode Island will have to deal with as the British empire attempts to reassert control over the American colonies. We learn about these problems while revisiting the Greene family in Potowomut on a Spring day in 1764. Sitting alongside the families forge on the Potowomut River is a man in his early 20’s named Nathanael Greene jr. Nathanael is the great grandson of James Greene, the man from episode 1 who taught his son, Jabez, why the people of Rhode Island were so upset about the Dominion of New England. As Nathanael sits by the forge his great grandfather built a little less than a century earlier, we see his face buried in a book. Along with being highly ambitious, Greene is an avid learner, a trait that often puts him at odds with his father, Nathanael Sr., a devout Quaker who sees book learning as a worldly luxury that inevitably leads one to sin. But Greene has never allowed this to stop him and he will spend the rest of his life educating himself on numerous topics like etiquette, business, and eventually the art of war. While in the middle of his reading, the studious young man hears his father shoutout to him “Nathanael, come up here. I have something important to tell you”. After taking a few more seconds to finish reading the page he’s on, Greene reluctantly closes the book and begins making his way to the family’s house. As he does, a prominent limp can be seen creating an awkward step in his stride, an abnormality he acquired as a child after a minor accident. However, even at the age of 21, he is still self conscious about the unwanted attention the limp brings him. When he makes it to the family’s house, his father tells him that Parliament has decided to renew the Sugar Act. Not understanding what the big deal is, Greene sort of just shrugs his shoulders. The Sugar Act, and the tax it imposes on sugar and molasses imported from the west indies, has been around for decades now but is largely ignored. To most of the colonists, it’s basically irrelevant. However, his father explains to him how it doesn’t seem as though that will be the case for long. He’s been hearing rumors that the British government is actually going to begin enforcing the tax, meaning that it will eat into the Rhode Islander’s profits. This catches Greene off guard a bit as he knows just how intertwined their economy is with sugar and molasses but still, he wonders to himself, “how much trouble could this actually cause?”. The answer to that question is more than he or the British government could’ve ever imagined. When the British empire begins to actually enforce the Sugar Act, Rhode Island will respond with a series of violent protests that sparks a power struggle between the two groups. Overtime, the Americans will begin to see the British empire as a tyrannical government that’s attempting to destroy their inalienable rights as Englishmen, forcing the Rhode Islanders to take their protests up a notch as well. British patrol ships will burn in Narragansett Bay, rioters in Newport will hang tax collectors in effigy, and their colony will find themselves at the forefront of a revolution that’s just beginning to unfold. The story of how Rhode Island helps to ignite the American Revolution is what we’ll cover in this week’s episode the Story of Rhode Island Podcast.

Intro Music

At first, the British government’s decision to begin enforcing the Sugar Act seems like nothing more than a reasonable financial decision. After the French & Indian War the British government now finds itself deeply in debt and is claiming that they simply want to use the revenue generated by the Sugar Act to help pay off that debt. And while on the surface such a justification seems completely logical, in reality, there’s something else going on here, something to do with power. Since the collapse of the Dominion of New England in the late 17th century, the British government has pretty much allowed the colonies to do their own thing but that mindset has changed. Parliament has decided that it's time to reign the colonists back in and remind them that at the end of the day Parliament has the authority to enact whatever taxes and laws in the colonies that they see fit for the colonies. And to prove their point, the British government will force the colonists to actually pay the tax imposed on them via the Sugar Act, whether they like it or not. The British government has no qualms about taking such actions as they assume the American colonists will simply do as they’re told. However, as they’re about to find out, that assumption is wildly inaccurate. Over the past several decades, the strength and size of the colonies has grown immensely and with this new power has come a strong sense of bravado. And Rhode Island is no exception to this change. Their colony has gone from being a gaggle of a few thousand religious outcasts looking for a place to worship freely to a formidable force of over 50,000 industrious individuals who have built a thriving economy and one that is heavily intertwined with molasses imported from the west indies. In fact, over 80% of all the molasses they import has been smuggled in illegally. There’s no way they’re about to just lie down and watch their profits come under attack without putting up a fight. Within just months of the Sugar Act being reinstated, the Rhode Island colonists decide to direct their outrage towards two of the royal ships patrolling Narragansett Bay, the HMS Squirrel and the St. John. It begins in July of 1764 when the St. John confiscates a local vessel smuggling in molasses on the eastern shores of Aquidneck Island. This alone is enough to stir up trouble but things only get worse when the people of Newport accuse some of the St. John’s crew members of stealing from local citizens. And now, with the St. John seen making its way out of the Bay, it looks as though the crew will escape without being tried for their crime. Almost immediately, men and women begin running towards their local officials, exclaiming how the men on that ship have robbed local citizens. As the news passes from official to official it eventually makes its way to the council of Rhode Island Governor, Stephen Hopkins, and a decision is hastily made to have the colony’s gunners fire at the royal vessel. Within minutes, a loud boom can be heard echoing throughout the Newport harbor as a cannonball flies towards the St. John. As a small cloud of smoke emerges in the sky, the Rhode Islanders stand there in astonishment as they take a minute to process the fact that they’ve just fired at a royal vessel. But then, just moments later, another shot is fired. Then another and another. Finally, one of the cannonballs actually hits the St. John’s mainsail and people throughout Newport begin to cheer. Knowing that it needs to find protection, the St John crew hides their ship behind the other patrol ship in the bay, The Squirrel, and its 22 guns. The Captain of the Squirrel redirects its aim towards the Rhode Islander gunners, letting them know the consequences they face if they dare to fire off another shot. The gunners wisely decide to cease fire and the calamity finally comes to a close. The Rhode Island colonists don’t know it but they’ve just fired what some historians consider to be the first shots of the American Revolution. It not only foreshadows far more violent events that are bound to arise but also illustrates how the people of Narragansett Bay have no plans of allowing an outside power to limit their vast profits. But shortly after the St. John incident, something even more monumental happens, something that redefines what the Americans are fighting for. Rhode Island’s Governor, Stephen Hopkins, becomes one of the first Americans to explain why their protests are more than just a mere attempt to protect their pocketbooks. He does so by publishing a pamphlet in December of 1764 entitled The Rights of Colonies Examined. In the pamphlet Hopkins states that QUOTE “all laws, and all taxations, which bind the whole, must be made by the whole” UNQUOTE. Or to sum it up in a phrase we’ve become more familiar with; no taxation without representation. Parliament might think that they have the right to enact laws and taxes on the American colonies without their consent but that’s not true. As Englishmen, the colonists are guaranteed the right of political representation as it was promised to them in the Bill of Rights that emerged from the Glorious Revolution in 1689. Since the colonists are not represented in parliament, these taxes are a direct violation of their rights as Englishmen. The constitutional right by of representation shared by Hopkins and others shortly after will eventually become the rallying cry that the Americans unite around during the early years of the revolution. Therefore, by Newporters being one of the first if not THE first group of colonists to take up arms against the British and with their Governor being one of the first Americans to define what the colonists are fighting for, it puts Rhode Island at the forefront of the revolution that’s beginning to unfold. And it’s a revolution that’s only about to pick up speed/ that isn’t slowing down any time soon.

As far as anyone can tell, the summer of 1765 is shaping up to be even more tumultuous than the last. Parliament has just imposed yet another tax on the colonists by passing the stamp act which now requires everyone to put a stamp on items like playing cards, legal documents, and newspapers. When news of the tax first made it to the shores of Narragansett Bay, the people of Rhode Island responded with their expected cries of outrage. But as time passed, they decided that they hadn’t done enough to express their disapproval so the Rhode Islanders have thought it prudent to ignite a new set of protests as well. And so, As we revisit Newport on an August afternoon in 1765 we see an effigy to the colony’s stamp officer, Augustus Johnson, hanging in front of the Colony House. To ensure everyone is well aware of who the dummy is meant to symbolize the protesters have inscribed the words “THE STAMP MAN” across his chest in all capital letters. Making sure they haven’t left anyone out, the people of Newport have also hung effigies of two of the town’s known loyalists, Martin Howard and Dr. Thomas Moffatt. As the bodies hang from the gallows, a strong summer wind causes the dummies to sway back and forth while a group of storm clouds make their way over the Colony House. Guarding the effigies are local merchants Samuel Vernon and William Ellery, the latter of the two being one of the colonists who will eventually sign one of our nation's most important documents in July of 1776. In front of Vernon and Ellery is a crowd of local citizens looking up towards the gallows. While they wait for the ceremony to begin, the colonists sip on a bottle of rum made from illegally imported molasses that’s being passed around the crowd. Then, with the sun having disappeared behind the horizon, a man walks up to the gallows, and lights the effigies on fire. With the bodies now fully engulfed in flames, the people in the crowd cheer loudly while shouts of huzzah come from the local tavern. For the next couple of days Newport becomes engulfed in riots that that results in the Two known loyalst houses being destroyed. Shortly after the event, August Johnson decides it’s probably not a good idea to try to collect taxes from these individuals so he wisely resigns his position as the colony’s Stamp Officer. Instead of prosecuting any of the rioters, the Rhode Island government tells their citizens that they are not expected to adhere to the Stamp Act as it was not instituted via their own democratic institutions. By the time 1765 comes to an end, the rebellion in America has reached a new pinnacle of radicalism. Many Americans now believe that not only are they defending their right of political representation but that they are also fighting a tyrannical government that wants to completely control their lives. Just as the commonwealth men had promised in Cato’s Letters, those in power are now attempting to destroy their liberties. Then, in 1766, colonists watch their fears come true when Parliament passes the Declaratory Act which states that Parliament has the right to enact laws binding the American colonies in QUOTE “all cases whatsoever” UNQUOTE. To illustrate that they have this power, Parliament imposes yet another set of taxes on the colonists via the 1767 Townshend Act. Shortly after the act is passed, the Rhode Islanders respond by burning a royal vessel known as the Liberty and by publicly stating the evil they are fighting against. The Pamphleteer, Silas Downer, preaches on the streets of Providence about the tyrannical government they are fighting abroad while Newport’s newspaper, the Mercury, changes their slogan to QUOTE “Undaunted by TYRANTS, —– We’ll DIE or be FREE” UNQUOTE. Then, tensions between the American colonists and the british government reach a new height when 5 Bostonians are killed by British troops, an event known today as the Boston Massacre. Before long It seems as though it’ll only be a matter of time before a war finally breaks out. But not too long after the Boston massacre, the exact opposite begins to occur. In April of 1770, Parliament decides to repeal a significant portion of the Townshend Acts and the winds of protests actually begin to subside. For the next couple of years a calm atmosphere sets in throughout America and by 1772 it seems as though the hurricane of dissent and rage that had been hovering over their colonies for years has passed. But unbeknownst to the colonists, that is not the case. Instead they are simply sitting in the eye of the storm. It’s a storm whose tumultuous weather is about to be reinvigorated by a royal ship that’s just entered Narragansett Bay. The vessel is known as the Gaspee and it will play a pivotal role in reigniting the rebellion in America. But before it does that it’s first going to turn a once harmless Quaker businessman from Potowomut into a devout member of the Patriot cause. We’ll watch this event unfold by visiting Nathanael Greene at his new home in Coventry. Greene is about to receive some troubling news that will change his life forever and set him on a path to becoming one of the most skilled Generals of the entire Revolutionary War.

It’s the winter of 1772 and the highly ambitious Nathanael Greene is once again hard at work. While most of the people greene knows have become wrapped up in the patriots’ fight to protect their liberties, he has primarily remained focused on his business endeavors. After leaving Potowomut a few years earlier following the death of his father, he now lives at the home he built in Coventry. To this day it still stands by the Pawtucket River. While at home, he takes a short break from meticulously reviewing his account book and decides to write a letter to his friend Samuel Ward Jr., son of the off and on again Ri Governor, Samuel Ward. He catches Ward up on his recent business dealings while also demonstrating his interest in self improvement by reminding his friend to always QUOTE “study to be wise and learn to be prudent” UNQUOTE. But Greene’s writing quickly comes to a halt when he hears a loud knocking on his door. After pushing out his chair he begins making his way to the front door while the limp he’s had since a child slows him down. When the door is finally opened, one of Greene’s business partners enters the house. Realizing that the man is stressed, Greene asks him what’s wrong. The man explains how the family's merchant vessel known as the Fortune was just seized by royal authorities and its large quantities of rum, sugar, and Jamaican spirits are now on their way to Boston to determine whether or not the goods were imported illegally. Knowing that this will inevitably eat into his profits, Greene becomes furious and begins shouting at the top of his lungs. But the man tells him that there’s more. Greene’s younger cousin, Rufus Greene, was harassed during the seizing of the Fortune and was threatened with further punishment if he failed to comply. With his heart pounding and his fists now clenched in anger, Greene asks his friend, “who did this”? “Lieutenant William Dudingston, of course”, replies his friend. Greene shakes his head, knowing he should’ve guessed that. Lieutenant Dudingston and his royal schooner, the Gaspee, have been unfairly seizing ships in Narragansett Bay for the past few weeks and have come to represent everything the colonists are fighting against. With his own family and wallet now feeling the weight of British oppression, Greene finds himself beginning to understand what his fellow colonists are fighting against. As the months pass, he’ll become more aware of the injustices his fellow colonists are dealing with and before long it’ll make him a devoted member of the patriot movement. But while we wait for that transition to be complete, we’ll visit a different group of Rhode Islanders who are already prepared to take up arms against the British. After learning about how the ship that just seized Greene’s vessel, the gaspee, now finds itself in a tremendously vulnerable position, the men have decided that it’s time to strike. Their daring attack will take place just off the shores of Warwick and will become known as Rhode Island’s most memorable protest of the entire revolution.

Sitting above Narragansett Bay is a moonless summer night sky. Underneath this peaceful setting, are 60 bloodthirsty men in rowboats making their way south down Narragansett Bay. They all hope that the pitch black sky will be enough to keep their identities hidden throughout their daring mission. Leading the men are Abraham Whipple, a former privateer in the French and Indian War, and John Brown, one of Colony’s wealthiest merchants. The men departed from James Sabin’s Tavern in Providence earlier that night and are now on their way towards Warwick. It’s been 5 months since Lieutenant Dudingston and the Gaspee illegally seized Nathanael Greene’s ship and Dudingston has only heightened his abusive ways. Not only has he been stopping anything that floats in Narragansett Bay but his men have also resorted to stealing livestock from some of the coastal farms. However, this brave group of Rhode Islanders have just been informed that the Gaspee was run aground while chasing a local sloop known as the Hannah and now sits helplessly off of Namquit Point in Warwick. At about 1:00am on June 10th of 1772, the raiding party arrives at their destination and begins surrounding the Gaspee. They hear a sentinel on the ship shout out to them and ask who's there but instead of responding the men continue inching their way closer to the vessel. Moments later, a concerned Lieutenant Dudingston makes his way to the front of the Gaspee and begins telling the men that if they dare try to make their way onto the ship then he’ll have them shot. Unfazed by the threat, Abraham Whipple responds by exclaiming QUOTE “I am the sheriff of the County of Kent, God Damn you. I have a warrant to apprehend you!” UNQUOTE. Dudingston once again tells the men to stay off of the vessel but the men are undeterred by his threat. One of the Rhode Islanders yells QUOTE “Damn your blood, we have you now” UNQUOTE and within seconds the men in rowboats begin making their way onto the deck while Dudingston and his crew attempt to defend themselves. During the ensuing struggle, one of the Rhode Islanders fires at Dudingston and a bullet passes through the Lieutenant’s arm and into his groin. As Dudingston lays there screaming in agony, the raiding party manages to overpower the crew and forces them to surrender. Whipple and Brown, realizing that Dudingston may die if he’s not tended to, instructs one of the men to dress his wound. While the man gets to work, a plan is devised to have the British crew rowed to the shores of the Pawtuxet Cove so that they can be dropped off before setting the Gaspee on fire. Over the next couple of hours, the plan is executed flawlessly and the men are able to escape while Dudingston and his crew watch the flames from the Gaspee rise above the Warwick shoreline. By the time morning arrives, news of the event has already begun making its way through Rhode Island's coastal towns and locals celebrate the fact that the days of being harassed by the Gaspee are long gone. But as you may have guessed the British government is not so pleased. After failing to gather information about the perpetrators of the crime, royal authorities make the fateful decision to send a Royal Commission to Newport to conduct an inquiry of its own. They hope that the Commission will be able to gather enough evidence to justify trying some of the suspects for treason in England. And while the inquiry itself is enough to upset colonists throughout America, it’s the latter part of their scheme that pushes the colonists over the edge. Because if the Rhode Islanders were to be tried in England instead of their home Colony then another one of their sacred rights as Englishmen would be infringed upon; the right to a trial by a jury of one's peers. The idea of such an intrusive event occurring infuriates the Americans and proves to be the catalyst that thrust the colonies back into a storm of protests. As the colonists' acts of insurrection begin to reoccur along the eastern seaboard, the leaders of the Revolution decide that it’s time to create an intercolonial network of communication known as the Committee of Correspondence. Eventually, the crown’s Commission proves to be completely ineffective and disbands without ever prosecuting a single person but by that point it’s too late. Thanks to the crown’s response to the burning of the gaspee, the rebellion is once again in full force. Then, Tensions continue to rise when a group of Boston Patriots dumps over 93,000 pounds of tea into the harbor and the crown decides to turn Boston into a police state via a set of laws known as the Intolerable Acts. The other colonies respond by assembling a provisional government known as the Continental Congress, a step Rhode Island was the first to initiate, and during the early fall of 1774 representatives from the 13 colonies meet to strategize about how they should respond to the latest measure taken by the British government. By the time 1775 begins, the line in the sand between the British empire and the American colonists is deeper than ever and what was once started out as a series of protests is yet again looking like it might erupt into something far more violent. Everyone knows that even the tiniest spark could ignite a full blown war.

Sitting beside Nathanael Greene at his home in Coventry is his wife, Caty, a woman from Block Island that he married last July. As she runs her fingers through her brunette hair, she reads a book that’s sitting on her lap. But as it grows later in the night she finds herself growing tired so she decides to take a break from reading and see what her husband is up to. As usual, she finds Greene hunched over at his desk, feverishly writing a letter to his friend about the despised government abroad. He writes with the type of passion that one can only have when they wholeheartedly believe in what they are saying. In his letter, Greene tells his friend about how the British government is nothing but a bunch of tyrants who will probably drive us to war. After writing about the events at hand for a few more minutes, he finishes his letter and dates it “April 19th 1775”. Over the past several months, Greene’s grown so confident that war is bound to break out that along with devoting himself to learning about military science he is now also a private in the Kentish Guards. As of last October, the guards have been officially designated as the militia for Kent County. Greene hoped that his enthusiasm for the patriots’ movement would get him elected as a company leader but he was disappointed to find out that the men were so embarrassed by his limp that they were hesitant to even let him march with them let alone be the leader of their company. The event has haunted Greene ever since but he has refused to allow it to discourage him. In fact, it’s only inspired him to work harder and ensure he’s doing everything he can to prove why he should be trusted to lead these men into battle if the time for war ever comes. Eventually, Caty puts her hand on her husband's back and lets him know that she’s going to head up for bed. But moments after kissing Greene goodnight, a loud knocking is heard at their front door. Startled by the aggressive banging, she turns and looks at her husband who quickly rises from his chair. But before he can even make his way to the door he hears a man shouting outside “Mr. Greene! Mr. Greene! Regulars have attacked a militia unit in the towns of Lexington and Concord and hundreds of men have been killed!”. Greene and Caty turn and look at each other with a shocked look on their faces as the spark they’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. With blood having been shed on the battlefield, they know that the days for protests are over and the time for war has begun. It’ll only be a matter of time before Greene will have to leave his life in Coventry behind and take up arms with his fellow Americans. Rhode Island, like the rest of the colonies, is now at war with the most powerful empire in the western world. Over the next several months, the people of Rhode Island will not only bravely choose to fight for the sacred liberties they believe in but will also be one of the first to realize that any hope of reuniting with their mother country is a hopeless endeavor. With this in mind, they will try to convince their fellow Americans that it’s time to bring their rebellion to its inevitable conclusion; independence. To make it abundantly clear to everyone that they can no longer stand to be loyal to such a tyrannical King, Rhode Island takes a daring step that once again puts them at the forefront of the Revolution that’s now become an all out war. But that’s a story for next time on next week’s episode of The Story of Rhode Island Podcast.