The Gaspee, a British customs schooner, operated in Narragansett Bay to enforce trade regulations, which aggravated many Rhode Islanders. They viewed these laws, such as the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act, as damaging to their economic interests. As discontent mounted among colonists, particularly with increasing taxation without representation, tensions escalated. On June 9, 1772, a group of colonists, including prominent shipbuilder John Brown, sought to assert their resistance against British control by attacking the Gaspee. Having previously chased the Gaspee after it had hunted down smugglers, the raiding party decided it was time to act decisively. They boarded the ship, confronted its crew, and set it ablaze, ensuring it would no longer serve British enforcement in the region.

The aftermath of the burning of the Gaspee was significant, as it led to increased vigilance among colonists to coordinate actions against British authorities. The event was widely discussed in newspapers, fuelling revolutionary sentiment across the Thirteen Colonies. The British government, incensed by the attack, intended to bring the culprits to justice, but the colonists' secretive operations made this difficult. The Gaspee incident is often seen as a critical moment that contributed to the unification of opposition against British rule leading up to the American Revolutionary War.