373 The Gaspee Affair, 1772

Ben Franklin's World

The so-called “March to the American Revolution” comprised many more events than just the Stamp Act Riots, the Boston Massacre, and the Tea Crisis. One event we often overlook played an essential and direct role in the events needed to draw the thirteen rebellious British North American colonies into a union of coordinated response. That event was the Gaspee Affair in 1772.

Adrian Weimer, a professor of history at Providence College, has been researching the Gaspee Affair and what it can tell us about the constitutional balance between the British Empire and its colonies. She leads us on an investigation of the Gaspee Affair.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/373 Sponsor Links

• Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
• Episode 144: The Common Cause of the American Revolution
• Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution
• Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century
• Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution

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