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The attitude of the whole country, north to south,
looked hopeless to those who longed for a showdown between England
and the colonies. Extremists could only bide their time, waiting
for England to blunder, to fan the cooling ashes of discontent
and light the blaze again.
The months rolled on down the channel of the year
(1772) and the mother country most maddeningly steered a course
that was reasonably inoffensive even to radicals. Yet the calm
was deceptive.
At Providence, Rhode Island, tempers were already
at the boiling point in the aftermath of the Boston
Massacre (March, 1770); and also the Boston tea tax, which
was part of the Townshend Acts (duties
on all items except tea were repealed). More
than half of all Rhode Island vessels were engaged in smuggling
tea, which meant that every ship would be in danger upon the
arrival of an armed British vessel, H.M.S. Gaspee, intent on
patrolling Narraganset Bay. The bay had many coves and
inlets and many of them offered ideal cover to seamen determined
to thwart London's Acts of Trade and Navigation. No region in
North America sheltered men more contemptous of His Majesty's
revenue measures.
William Dudingston, commander of Gaspee, was
well known in the Royal Navy then stationed in colonial waters.
Time and time again he had boasted that "Given the chance,
I will seize smugglers and treat them for what they are -- pirates!"
John Brown, a successful and prosperous merchant,
was already a man of substance in the mercantile and political
realms. He had helped construct the building in Providence to
house Rhode Island College (later to become Brown University
named in his honor). Already important in North American waters,
Brown's ships would soon move into the East India and the China
trades. As a fervent, vocal opponent of the Stamp
Act, he had emerged as a leader of colonists who openly opposed
"taxation without representation." Brown's plan was
to lure the Gaspee into shallow waters, run it aground,
and then board and burn it.
So, on June 9, 1772, the armed schooner Gaspee
spotted Brown's boat and followed in pursuit. As planned, the
Gaspee was led into shallow water where it ran aground.
Suddenly, it found itself the hunted, not the hunter, and
was boarded, captured, and burned to the water's edge while crowds
in nearby Providence gathered on the wharf to cheer.
Many moderate Americans, as well as ultra-Loyalists,
added their voices to the howl of rage that went up from Royal
officials, and the first answering rumble from London sent Crown
sympathizers capering in joyous anticipation. |
