Page 25 - ASM Book 9/2020

1772
19
A Tea Act . . . Again
• MAY 10 - BRITISH ACTION: Parliament approved a Tea Act that granted a monopoly to the East India Company to import tea into the American colonies.
• JUNE 9 - AMERICAN ACTION: The British customs schooner, the Gaspée, ran aground off Rhode Island in the Narragansett Bay. Citizens of Providence attacked and burned the ship.
• NOVEMBER 2 - AMERICAN ACTION: Sam Adams called a Boston town meeting. The citizens appointed a 21-member Committee of Correspondence that would share news with other towns.
• NOVEMBER 20 - AMERICAN ACTION: Sam Adams wrote the Rights of the Colonists, in which he listed and described the natural rights that American colonists should possess.
Gaspée Affair Helped Ignite Independence
On June 9, 1772, eight boatloads of Sons
of Liberty men from Rhode Island looted and destroyed the revenue cutter Gaspée by fire. The ship had run aground chasing an American smuggling vessel. This action was not the first time Rhode Island patriots had attacked and destroyed British ships. In 1764, the HMS St. John was attacked and in 1769 the HMS Liberty was destroyed by fire.
Due to Great Britain’s massive debt after the French and Indian War, Parliament decided to exert more control over the colonies that included new taxes and fees. One of their goals was to stop American smuggling. The Sons
of Liberty responded to Parliament’s tougher stand by carrying out acts of civil disobedience throughout the colonies.
British officials tried to bring the Gaspée raiding party to justice, but they were never punished.
The Gaspée affair was one of the early events that helped ignite the spark for American independence.