WEBVTT NOTE 14. Suppressing Tories in Rhode Island 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.600 Volume 4, Chapter 14, Suppressing Tories in Rhode Island and Connecticut 2 00:00:08.600 --> 00:00:14.300 While the Tories stood disunited and lacking firm British leadership, the revolutionaries 3 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:22.860 in colony after colony struck with keen efficiency and dispatch to disarm the actual and potential 4 00:00:22.860 --> 00:00:25.200 traders in their midst. 5 00:00:25.200 --> 00:00:30.840 In Massachusetts, support for the revolution was so ardent and widespread that there was 6 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:36.600 little organized Tory opposition, and the local revolutionary committees could work 7 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:41.480 their will on individual Tories, unchecked. 8 00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:47.240 Most Massachusetts Tories were concentrated in the West, in the towns of the Upper Connecticut 9 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:54.240 River Valley, including Amherst, Hatfield, and especially Deerfield. 10 00:00:54.240 --> 00:01:00.100 Their concentrations were to be found in the town of Worcester, which was, however, predominantly 11 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:06.720 revolutionary, and among the Baptist of the town of Ashfield. Tories were particularly 12 00:01:06.720 --> 00:01:14.260 numerous among the royal judges and bureaucrats, and it has been estimated that fully half 13 00:01:14.260 --> 00:01:20.560 the lawyers in western Massachusetts were Tories. However, no special measures had to 14 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:25.840 be taken against the Massachusetts Tories since they were so few in number relative 15 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:28.960 to the total population. 16 00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:35.360 Toryism was much more threatening in Rhode Island, where Newport abounded in Loyalist. 17 00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:41.100 Particularly embarrassing was Rhode Island's Governor, Joseph Wanton, who became an active 18 00:01:41.100 --> 00:01:47.520 Tory and urged the Rhode Island Assembly to seek a separate peace with England. 19 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:54.660 In June 1775 the powerful assembly, moving toward deposing Wanton, quickly forbade the 20 00:01:54.660 --> 00:02:00.540 oath of office from being administered to him and commissioned militia officers without 21 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:02.400 his signature. 22 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:07.960 In November it deposed Wanton as governor and replaced him with the radical Nicholas 23 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:11.800 Cook of Samuel Ward's old faction. 24 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:18.700 Throughout 1775, Rhode Island, particularly Newport, suffered from the plunder of a fleet 25 00:02:18.700 --> 00:02:25.960 of British warships in lower Narragansett Bay, commanded by Captain James Wallace. 26 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:31.160 Wallace disrupted and plundered Rhode Island's foreign trade and shipping, and continually 27 00:02:31.160 --> 00:02:38.160 threatened Newport with fire and destruction if the citizens did not furnish food and supplies 28 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:40.780 to the British army and fleet. 29 00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:45.540 The U.S. finally did shell the defenseless town of Bristol, and thoroughly plundered 30 00:02:45.540 --> 00:02:55.040 and partially burned Jamestown in 1775. Eventually, the months of British terror and imposed starvation 31 00:02:55.040 --> 00:03:01.580 took their toll. The people of Newport began to flee the city. By early November, nearly 32 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:08.260 half of its citizens, largely women and children, had fled northward from the city. Most of 33 00:03:08.260 --> 00:03:16.260 were rebels, so the revolutionary morale of Newport, never high at best, was weakened still further. 34 00:03:16.260 --> 00:03:24.260 With the consent of the Rhode Island government and the Continental Congress, Newport agreed in the autumn of 1775 35 00:03:24.260 --> 00:03:31.260 to supply the British fleet with provisions and to withdraw the colony's militia from the town. 36 00:03:31.260 --> 00:03:38.140 In the meanwhile, however, the Rhode Island Assembly intensified its order to take stern 37 00:03:38.140 --> 00:03:44.180 measures against the Tories. Thus, it decreed the punishment of death and confiscation of 38 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:50.780 property for anyone betraying the cause to the enemy or providing him with supplies. 39 00:03:50.780 --> 00:03:56.940 The Newport agreement, of course, accepted. In December, Rhode Island authorities alarmed 40 00:03:56.940 --> 00:04:11.940 Washington sent down his best man, General Lee, with a handful of troops. Lee heartened 41 00:04:11.940 --> 00:04:17.860 the rebels and thoroughly frightened the Tories, enforcing upon them a public oath in support 42 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:24.140 of the Continental Congress and arresting three Tories who refused to take it. His energetic 43 00:04:24.140 --> 00:04:36.140 and economic activities at the end of the year, including arrest of Tory leaders and issuance of mass loyalty oaths, succeeded in Cowan, the loyalist in Newport. 44 00:04:36.140 --> 00:04:48.140 Tory opposition to the revolution in New England centered in southwestern Connecticut in sharp contrast to the fierce revolutionary fervor of the bulk of that colony. 45 00:04:48.140 --> 00:04:55.140 Indeed, at the end of 1775, Connecticut became the first colony to enact a systematic body 46 00:04:55.500 --> 00:05:02.500 of law against Tories, including such severe punishment as forfeiture of all property and 47 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:09.580 three years' imprisonment. For the first time in America, serving the king was officially 48 00:05:09.580 --> 00:05:16.580 branded a crime to be severely punished. Connecticut's fervor was such that it was the best place 49 00:05:16.580 --> 00:05:28.180 One of the principal prison sites in the colonies was the dank, abandoned copper mine at Simsbury. 50 00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:33.480 The New Haven town meeting opposed taking up arms against Britain, and the meetings 51 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:38.300 of Litchfield and Danbury condemned the Continental Congress. 52 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:43.660 In Redding and New Milford, the majority of the inhabitants went so far as to swear to 53 00:05:43.660 --> 00:05:45.980 loyalist oaths. 54 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:52.260 The most acute Tory threat to Connecticut appeared in May 1775, when the bulk of the 55 00:05:52.260 --> 00:05:58.960 Waterbury militia, officers and enlisted men alike, declared their refusal to follow the 56 00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:02.980 policy advised by the Continental Congress. 57 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:10.180 This threat was swiftly and efficiently countered by a secretly conducted night raid upon southwestern 58 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:23.140 The Tories of the entire area were disarmed by the raiders, and a dozen Tory leaders were 59 00:06:23.140 --> 00:06:24.220 taken prisoner.