As we all know, Rhode Island has a rich colonial history, especially as it relates to the beginning of the formation of our country at the time of the American Revolution. I fact-checked myself by confirming with my friend, Rhode Island’s Historian Laureate and former PC History professor Patrick Conley, that although most school children are taught that the Boston Tea Party is given top billing in terms of significance as a turning point in the Colonists insurrection, it was the Burning of the Gaspee in Narragansett Bay that occurred a full year and a half before that really sparked a move toward full-scale rebellion (Sinking of Gaspee June 1772, Boston Tea Party December 1773). Luring a Royal British Navy vessel to ground itself on a sand bar and proceeding to kidnap its crew and burn the vessel down to the watermark was a far more serious act than colonists dressing up as Indians and throwing boxes of tea into the harbor.