On this day in 1772, the HMS Gaspee, an armed British customs schooner runs aground off the Rhode Island coast. It was in pursuit of the Hanna, an American smuggling ship.
In what could be regarded as the first naval engagement of the American Revolution, as many as 67 colonists, angered by British Parliament’s Townshend Acts, board the Gaspee. They subsequently shoot its captain in the abdomen, send him and his crew to shore, and set the ship aflame.
The resulting “Gaspee Affair” intensified British-American relations and prompted Boston Patriots to found the first Committee of Correspondence. These inter-colonial committees publicized the anti-British activity that occurred throughout colonies and British plans to restrict Americans rights. These lines of communication laid the foundation for a new national unity.
Of course, Samuel Adams was the one who organized this first committee.
A Solemn Trust
Similarly, it is Mr. Samuel Adams who inspired Our first t-shirt with the quote below, which we the people should bear in mind for the 2018 elections:
“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”
‘Correspond’ this voting wisdom with your ‘committee,’ and get your shirt HERE:
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