This week in Social Studies we learned about the burning of the Gaspee, which took place in 1772 when the British were ruling Rhode Island. The British had passed a tax on the cargo in ships, so they had ships to collect the tax. In Rhode Island we were very upset by this, so we would smuggle the cargo and try to avoid the tax collector ship. Then when the British found out about the smuggling they hired a large boat called the Gaspee to collect taxes. The Gaspee was a mean and aggressive ship and the crew on the Gaspee made sure no one would smuggle. One day a cargo ship called the Hannah was sailing to Providence when the Gaspee asked them to stop and let them search their ship. When the Hannah said, “NO,” and started sailing away, the Gaspee started sailing after them, and for a long time this went on until the Gaspee got stuck in a sand bar because it was heavy. The Hannah then rushed to Providence to tell people what had happened. Then a drummer went out in the streets to gather up people to plan the attack on the Gaspee. After that they all got in 8 big row boats and went to the sand bar where the Gaspee was stuck, and at 12:00 they attacked it and lit the Gaspee on fire. When the British got word of this they questioned everyone about the attack and no one told. Overall I think it would have been really cool to experience the burning of the Gaspee, but I was born 200 years late.
