The Gaspee Affair Began a Chain that Lead to the 13 Colonies Declaring Indendence from Britain

In June of 1772, a British schooner, known as the Gaspee, commandeered by Lieutenant William Dudingston, traveled along the Narragansett Bay in pursuit of smugglers (Park, 54-55). During the chase the ship ran aground, and the crew found themselves stuck in the shallow waters. The armed naval vessel was suddenly boarded by an angry mob; the commander was shot, the crew taken ashore, and then, the Gaspee was set aflame (Park 54-55). The attack on a British naval ship, would become known as The Gaspee Affair, and it led to the British government demanding those involved, to be tried in Great Britain, outside the colonies (Blinka, 54). Those involved in the burning of the Gaspee were never properly identified (Park 54-55) A trial never occurred, but the aftermath of the Gapsee incident set off a series of events that stirred American resistance, and eventually led to the 13 colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain.
In 1776, four years after the burning of the Gaspee, Thomas Jefferson would include in the Declaration of Independence, the charge against the King, “for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences”. When Jefferson included this passage into the Declaration, he was referring to the law passed in May of 1774, known as the Administration of Justice Act; a law that was one of the measures included in the “Coercive Acts”, which Americans referred to as the “Intolerable Acts” (Selesky, 1). The Coercive Acts was the British Government’s response to the events that had occurred in December, of 1773, known as the Boston Tea Party. The Administrative of Justice Act was directed primarily at the people of Boston, and Massachusetts (Ammerman, 1).
To the Americans, the Administration of Justi...

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... the oppression they received from the British government.
To the American people, a trial by jury was viewed as a fundamental right. To take away the right to a fair trial was an offense they did not take lightly. A trial by jury gave, “…raw power to determine facts and law insulated the people from oppression by the king, judges, and even legislature” (Blinka, 57). For the British government to threaten to diminish that power, was an act that colonists viewed as a threat against their civil rights, and freedoms. In enacting the Administration of Justice Act in 1774, the British government was directly aggravating the American’s views on a right to a fair trial. The disagreements between the colonists, and Great Britain would lead to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and a charge against a King and government they declared unfit to rule.