1772

Hello, History Friends!! Often, the year 1772 gets skipped in studies of what we at my house call the RevoWar, at least in type, haha! My family is so patient. Sometimes I worry that all I talk about is the stuff I'm learning. Luckily, most of them at least seem interested as well. But let's be honest, what's not to be interested in? I say whoever says history is boring has never actually studied it!   

The year 1772 started out on a happy note, Jan 1 was the day that Thomas Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton. Now, ya'll know that Jefferson isn't my favorite founding father, but I just finished a book about him called Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham. Not to be crazy shallow or anything, but the fact that Edward Hermann (or Richard Gilmore for those of you who half believe Stars Hollow is a real place and part of your identity live there) narrated it, sure helped soften the ordeal. I still don't particularly care for Mr. Jefferson too much, as his life felt incredibly hypocritcal. However! He fought for freedom of religion. He, weirdly enough, did fight for the abolition of slavery for the first part of his life. Actually, speaking of that, I just started "Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant's Search for Her Family's Lasting Legacy" by Gayle Jessup White. I'm doing it because I can't stop thinking about Sally Hemings. We'll talk more about her later, but I hope this book can help me make sense of all the feelings. Sally was Martha's half sister and wasn't even born yet during this wedding, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

So yes, the year started off on a happy note there in Virginia for the Jefferson's, but in Rhode Island, the colonials were dealing with some pesky British Ships. I guess we need to rewind a little more than that first.

Rhode Island was part of what was known as the Triangle Trade. It was a sad cycle where sugar was farmed in the West Indies, by those in slavery, then that sugar was brought to Rhode Island and made into rum. Then that rum was taken to the coasts of Africa where it was traded for, unfortunately, humans. Those enslaved people were then taken to the West Indies and traded for the sugar headed to the states.

As we've discussed a few times before, the colonials were often doing some smuggling. Partly because the actual tax on the sugar and molasses was legit too high for anyone to legally pay. But that tax was cut in half, as mentioned at the sugar act, and customs agents were expected to take what was owed.

Great Britain was pretty tired of things not changing so they sent Lieutenant Dudingston, on a ship called the Gaspee. He was notorious for being a stickler, but he was turning out to be a bully. He was pulling over all kinds of ships and harassing them; boarding or confiscating without any real reason to.

On June 9, Benjamin Lindsey, who was the Captain of a sloop (that's a much smaller boat) called Hannah, decided to play a little game with Lt. Dudingston. He used his wee li'lle boat and Dudingston's Ginormous ego to lure the Gaspee upriver. He knew all the ins and outs, but the Gaspee didn't. So Lindsey went around a little point called Namquid  that all the locals knew was super shallow. He figured the Gapsee wouldn't know that and he was correct. The Gaspee was stranded on the bank until high tide.

Lindsey let John Brown know about it and he was one of the Sons of Liberty, so he sent out a general invitation (via town crier) to anyone who wanted to participate in the evening's festivities. All those who wanted to join met up at Sabin's Tavern. They came up with a plan. Led by Abraham Whipple, eight longboats were boarded and their oars muted (Washington used this method, later, when crossing the Delaware) by wrapping cloth around each oar. The group silently made it's way to the boat.

They had to wait til after midnight so that darkness could still be their cover. All the British crewmen were asleep except for the one standing guard. He woke up Lt. Duddykins. I mean Dudingston, who came out in his jammies, holding a pistol. Mr Whipple introduced himself as "The Sheriff of the County of Kent" and announced that he was there to arrest the Lieutenant. 

Gaspee's crew didn't take the silent boaters seriously until one of them shot Lt Dudingston a couple of times. Sure he was a dead man, the Lieutenant gave up the boat. The rebel group set the boat on fire, which must have made quite the spectacle since there was gunpowder and other cannonfriendly supplies on the ship.

The men were taken captive and, under the care of a doctor, even their "surely dead" leader were safely moved to Stillhouse Cove on Patuxet.

The crewmen were locked in a cellar overnight and a Tory took care of Dudingston. 

In August, the Crown finally received word of the Gaspee's demise and boy was the king maaaaad! He sent out a  Royal proclamation that offered 500lb reward for raiders, 1000 lbs for mob sheriff. All of them were being accused of treason. That just made people mad. The Crown also established a Royal Commission of Inquiry to make sure the villainous Rhode Islander's were caught and punished. Here's the thing, though. None of the guys disguised themselves. Everyone local knew who these guys were. And yet, not one was ever arrested. Eventually the Commission was disbanned.

A couple of other interesting things happened in 1772. In September, two children of future presidents were born. John and Abigail Adams had their son, Thomas. Thomas and Martha Jefferson had their daughter, Martha, who would be nicknamed Patsy and eventually have the last name Randolf- was born.

Another notable thing that the world didn't know they'd find important- October 1772 is when Alexander Hamilton arrived in New York.

And though it probably has very little to do with the events we're learning about, I found it interesting that 1772 was also the year that New Jersey passed a bill requiring doctors to have a license in order to practice medicine.

Do you have any ancestors who dealt with Rhode Island ocean bullies? Or knew about it? Or even just lived in Rhode Island in 1772? I'd love to hear about them. Leave a comment on the blog or the FB page!!