 The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations enacted the first law prohibiting slavery in America on May 18, 1652.The first act of armed rebellion in America against the British Crown was the boarding and burning of the Revenue Schooner "Gaspee" in Narragansett Bay on June 10, 1772.The idea of a Continental Congress was first proposed at a town meeting in Providence on May 17, 1774.