Story of the Gaspee Affair

Historians accord various degrees of importance to the Gaspee Affair as pushing the American and English into the American Revolution.  But there is general agreement by historians that the shot fired by Joseph was the first time an American deliberately shot a an English military man as a part of a deliberate attack --- planned by colony leaders --- on the English military forces.

After Joseph Bucklin's shooting of the English ship commander and the subsequent capture and sinking of the Royal Navy ship, the English Attorney General joined with the English Solicitor General in London to give a formal opinion that declared the attack on the Gaspee was "treason" and an "act of war." Until then, each of the acts of violence or resistance by the colonists had not been so labeled by the English legal system.  Whether or not the Americans so considered it, the English considered that a war had begun and assembled a large fleet to move to the American colonies. The Rhode Island colony now  feared that in retaliation to the Gaspee attack, there would be an invasion of the colony by the British troops already stationed in Boston.

The 1772 Attack by Rhode Island on the English Royal Navy Ship Gaspee!

Executive Summary

The Gaspee was an English revenue cutter, preventing smuggling and collecting taxes.  When the Gaspee went aground, a number of men of the Providence area rowed out, and attacked the ship. Joseph Bucklin shot and wounded the English Navy captain, the attackers successfully boarded and overpowered the crew, the attackers took the English navy crew off the ship, and burned the Gaspee.  The English Attorney General gave a legal opinion that it was "treason" and an "act of war". England attempted to find who was involved, and bring the attackers back to be tried in England. The colonists insisted that this violated the rights of Englishmen to be tried by a jury of their own vicarage.  Although the attackers included many prominent men of Rhode Island, the people of Rhode Island successfully kept the identity of the attackers secret from the English until after the end of the Revolutionary War.

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