It was long after midnight when they came within sight of the doomed vessel hard set in the sand, and heard the first hoarse challenge of the guard. Without heeding it they dashed forward and as a second challenge came were at her side. Duddingston sprang upon the gunwale—he had no time to dress, no time to arm himself or call his men to quarters—but as he stood full in view his figure caught the eye of Joseph Bucklin who was standing on one of the main thwarts. “Eph.,” said Bucklin to Ephraim Bowen, who was sitting on the thwart on which Bucklin was standing and who lived to tell the story in his eighty-sixth year, “reach me your gun, I can kill that fellow.” As Eph. was reaching him the gun, Whipple, one of the leaders was beginning to answer Duddingston’s hail:—“I am the sheriff of the County of Kent, God damn you,”—but while he was yet speaking Bucklin fired and Duddingston fell, wounded in the stomach. The surprise was complete. The crew with their wounded commander were sent ashore and the vessel burned to the water’s edge.
Who were these bold men? Everybody in Providence knew; but although large rewards were offered for their detection and a special tribunal formed to try them, nobody was ever found to bear witness against them. So deep were the feelings that prepared the way for the separation from England.
CHAPTER XXIV.
PROPOSITION FOR THE UNION OF THE COLONIES.—ACTIVE MEASURES TAKEN LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE.—DELEGATES ELECTED TO CONGRESS.—DESTRUCTION OF TEA AT PROVIDENCE.—TROOPS RAISED.—POSTAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED.—DEPREDATIONS OF THE BRITISH.—“GOD SAVE THE UNITED COLONIES.”
The 22d of June, 1772, was memorable in the history of humanity, for it was on that day that Mansfield solemnly declared as Lord Chief-Justice of England that slavery could not exist on English soil. This declaration met with a hearty response in Rhode Island. On the 17th of May, 1774, the citizens of Providence met in town meeting to take counsel together upon the questions of the day. Two resolves of this meeting stand fitly side by side. An intestate estate comprising six slaves had fallen to the town. In the meeting it was voted that it was “unbecoming the character of freemen to enslave the said negroes, that personal liberty was an essential part of the natural rights of mankind, and that the Assembly should be petitioned to prohibit the further importation of slaves, and to declare that all negroes born in the Colony should be free after a certain age.”
In the June session of 1774 the question was brought before the Assembly. “Those” says the preamble, “who are desirous of enjoying all the advantages of liberty themselves, should be willing to extend personal liberty to others.”... Therefore, says the bill, “for the future no negro or mulatto slave shall be brought into this Colony.” To perfect the act clauses were added defining the condition of slaves in transit with their masters, and protecting the Colony against pauper freedmen.
Having taken this high ground concerning the individual, they took ground equally noble concerning the Colony, “resolving that the deputies of this town be requested to use their influence at the approaching session of the General Assembly of this Colony for promoting a Congress, as soon as may be, of the representatives of the general assemblies of the several colonies and provinces of North America for establishing the firmest union, and adopting such measures, as to them shall appear the most effectual to answer that important purpose, and to agree upon proper methods for executing the same.” Thus in Rhode Island the condemnation of slavery and the call for union went hand in hand.
The time for hesitation was past. Event came crowding upon event. Virginia, also, called for a Congress. But it was on Boston chiefly that all eyes were fixed. Her example had strengthened the hands of the discontented, and both the King and his Parliament had resolved to make her a warning example of royal indignation. For this the bill closing her port and cutting off her commerce and known in history as the Boston Port Bill was passed. It was to go into operation the 1st of June, 1774. Never did a great wrong awaken a more universal resentment. Old jealousies and rivalries were forgotten in the sense of a common danger. On the 1st of June the voice of mourning and commiseration was heard throughout the land. Virginia set it apart as a day of fasting and prayers. From every Colony came contributions in sheep and oxen and money. Rhode Island sent eight hundred and sixty sheep, thirteen oxen, four hundred and seventeen pounds in money. Boston in this day of suffering was for her no longer the Boston of the Atherton Company and disputed boundary lines.