Where was the first shot fired in the American Revolution?
Not at Lexington and Concord but in the waters of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. On June 9, 1772, H.M.S. Gaspee, a British schooner enforcing tariffs, ran aground during low tide. Before a rising tide could lift the vessel, a group of Rhode Islanders rowed out and boarded it. They easily defeated the crew, shot and wounded an officer, and set the Gaspee ablaze. The American Revolution had begun. To this day in Rhode Island, the village of Pawtuxet celebrates “Gaspee Days” with great fanfare every June. And the charming seaside town of Bristol holds the oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in America. Maybe history will repeat itself. From its birth, Rhode Island has always been among the most independent of statesand among the most eccentric. It was the first state to declare independence from Great Britain, but the very last to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, Anti-Federalism was red hot in colonial Rhode Island and it refused to send a single representative to the Const
