The event increased hostilities between the American colonists and British officials , following the Boston Massacre in 1770 . British officials in Rhode Island wanted to increase their control over trade — legitimate trade as well as smuggling — in order to increase their revenue from the small colony . But Rhode Islanders increasingly protested the Stamp Act , the Townshend Acts , and other British impositions that had clashed with the colony 's history of rum manufacturing , maritime trade , and slave trading
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Gaspee Affair