A short history of Rhode Island

by George Washington Greene

The Americans were sorely disappointed. They had taken up their arms with such confidence of success that they could not bear to lay them down with so little done. Their murmurs were loud and deep. Some were ready to lay all the blame upon their allies. Nothing but the good sense of Greene and the good feeling and generous nature of Lafayette could have prevented an outbreak. The old leaven of English animosity toward France still lay deeply rooted in the colonial heart. It was an unfortunate beginning of the alliance that was to give them victory.

For still another year the principal island of Narragansett Bay was to remain in the hands of British soldiers, and its other islands and the shores of its mainland lie exposed to the ravages of British cruisers. It was a year of suffering. There was no more fighting in regular battles, no more laying siege by regular advances, but many plundering excursions for the wanton waste of property and the wicked waste of life. Houses were burnt from mere wantonness; woods and orchards cut down to serve for fire-wood, and for this the cold winter furnished a good excuse; but when at last the enemy withdrew, little was left of the sylvan beauty of Narragansett Bay.

The adventurous fighting was chiefly done on the water, and the hero of it was Silas Talbot, of Providence. Talbot had already distinguished himself early in the war, both on land and on the water. Nothing suited his adventurous spirit so well as the leadership in enterprises which to other men seemed hopeless, and his judgment and skill equaled his daring. Of these bold exploits one of the boldest was the capture of the Pigot galley, a vessel of three hundred tons, mounting eight twelve-pounders, protected by strong boarding nettings and manned by forty-five men. The force with which Talbot took her was a small sloop carrying two three-pounders and manned for the occasion by sixty men. As a recognition of his gallantry Congress sent him a commission of lieutenant-colonel, and not long after that of captain in the navy.

Among the miseries of these years was a scarcity of food, almost amounting to a famine. Speculation was active and remorseless, getting control of the market and growing rich on human suffering. An appeal was made to Connecticut for a suspension of her embargo on provisions in favor of Rhode Island. The question how to counteract “engrossers and forestallers,” was one of the most difficult questions which Congress and state legislatures and special conventions were called upon to meet. Two thousand helpless poor were scattered through the State, dependent upon public and private charity for bread. Five hundred pounds were voted for the relief of the poor of Newport. The appeal to Connecticut for a relaxation of her embargo was met by permission to export seven thousand bushels of grain, and a recommendation of a general contribution by her citizens. The recommendation called forth gifts of four thousand three hundred pounds in money, and five hundred bushels of grain. The recommendation was extended through Congress to other states, and South Carolina assumed through her delegates fifty thousand dollars of Rhode Island’s Continental quota.

It was in this year also that the storm, long known as the Hessian storm, from the number of those wretched mercenaries who perished in it, occurred. Sentinels froze at their posts—some were suffocated by the whirling snow. The roads were blocked up by it. Never had such a storm been known.

New taxes were regularly called for and voted, both for Continental and State expenses. But the currency was deranged and the sources from whence taxes were drawn well nigh exhausted. The treasury was empty. To enlist a new brigade,—the term of the old one having run out,—it was found necessary to borrow twelve thousand pounds from Connecticut for a month. There was not time yet for constitutional reforms, although attention was frequently called to the inequality of representation. But the more important reforms were the reforms of the army, and the great event of 1779 was the introduction of Steuben’s Tactics.

The derangement of the currency made itself felt everywhere. Colonel Crary, of the First State Infantry, an excellent officer, was compelled to throw up his commission because he could not support his family on his pay. With many others it was merely a question of time—whether they should resign at once or wait a little longer till they were ruined utterly. As paper depreciated taxes were increased. Confidence, the basis of national prosperity, was gone. In June, 1778, two heavy taxes were levied, one of two hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds for Congress, and one of sixty thousand pounds for the State. Almost the only channel through which goods and money still continued to come was through privateers.

The vital question was the question of finance. Congress appealed to the states and the states to the towns. A convention met at East Greenwich and attempted to fix upon a maximum scale of prices for articles of consumption. The establishment of rates for labor and board and manufactures, was left with the towns. The fatal effects of a false system of political economy fell heavily upon both town and country. Trading in gold and silver was discouraged and desperate efforts made to relieve the country from the pressure of present debt; but the root of the evil lay too deep, and bankruptcy was already at the door.

One act, however, of these days of trial, we can still dwell upon with satisfaction. In spite of the manumission act an attempt was made to sell some slaves to the South. The Assembly interfered for their protection and forbade the sale.

The Greenwich Convention had left its work unfinished. A new convention was called in September to finish it, and every effort was made to raise the loan recommended by Congress. At the suggestion of Massachusetts a convention of the five Eastern States was called to meet at Hartford and take these difficult questions into consideration. And thus the days and months passed away, monotonously sad, with little of present enjoyment and still less of promise for the future. Men lived like those who carry their lives in their hands and have no hold on the morrow. At last the long looked for day came. Fifty-two transports entered Newport harbor and immediately the work of embarkation began. Six thousand men with their baggage and military stores and a melancholy train of Tories were to bid goodbye to their pleasant quarters. When all was ready the inhabitants were forbidden to venture into the streets on pain of death, and the march to the place of embarkation at Brenton’s Point began. Then was heard for the last time in the streets of Newport the British drum and the measured tread of an enemy’s march. All day long the boats were plying to and fro, and at sunset the fleet set sail. Forty-six Tories, with such property as they could carry, and a large band of liberated slaves went with it. The last act of the troops was to burn the barracks at Brenton’s Point and the light-house at Beaver Tail. When the inhabitants began to look about them and count their losses, they found that over five hundred houses had been destroyed and property to the value of nearly one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds ruined in the Town of Newport alone. The population had been reduced by more than half, and among the emigrants were the Lopez, and Hays, and Riveiras, and Touros, rich and enterprising Jews. One outrage it is difficult to explain, the robbery of the town records, which were put on board one of the transports and sent to New York. This alone would have been a great injury, for they contained the history of the Colony from its foundation, and as parts of that history the record of sales and grants of land. But to complete the loss the vessel on board which they had been put sunk in the passage of Hell Gate, and it was not till they had lain three years in the water that they were recovered. Parts only were legible.