Protest Events

By 1750 Newport, Rhode Island was a large, wealthy city, the fifth largest in the British North American colonies, and the third busiest port.  The large, deep harbor was well sheltered, and the merchants, ship owners and ship captains made the most of it.  Newport ships ranged much of the world buying, selling and trading goods.

This high level of trade was frequently interrupted by a series of wars fought between Britain and France.  From 1757 to 1763, British and American colonial forces fought the French and Indian War, which resulted in France having to give up its North American colonies.  It was a win for the British, but a very expensive win.  Needing to shore up its treasury the Crown enacted a series of laws creating new taxes and increasing enforcement of older ones.  These taxes were often in the form of duties on imports and thus impacted Newport’s commercial accounts directly.

In 1764 Parliament enacted the Sugar Act which placed duties on the import of sugar to the colonies.  Sugar was a major part of Newport’s economy which relied heavily on sugar, the principal ingredient in rum.  The 22 rum distilleries in Newport certainly produced more rum than the population of Newport, about 9500 at the time, could consume.  Rum became a main currency, used by the commercial sector of the economy.  Mercantilist theory, to which Britain ascribed, called for hard currency to be restricted to the home country.  The colonies would do business by barter.  Newport’s rum was loaded into ships and used as money for the purchase of goods. For example, rum was traded for slaves in Africa.  Then the slave ships sailed to the West Indies, the Sugar Islands, where the slaves were exchanged for sugar in the form of molasses which was then brought to Newport.  Increased taxes on sugar (molasses in this case) hence rippled through the Town’s economy.

What made the tax even more offensive to Newporters was the stationing of ships in Newport harbor to enforce the tax and apprehend smugglers.  The Crown tasked the Royal Navy to enforce the payment of the tax and gave the ships’ captains extraordinary powers to stop ships, seize cargos, and press commercial seamen into service with the Navy.  Often these captains and their crews treated to locals very badly, refusing to pay for goods taken from local shops and generally abusing verbally or physically the locals.