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Gaspee Days Parade on June 14
June 14 @ 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Since 1965, the Gaspee Days Committee has continued its efforts to preserve, promote, and share Rhode Island’s revolutionary history with the community. There’s no better way to do that than by celebrating over 50 years of the Gaspee Days Parade. Combining colonial groups from all over with our modern and vibrant community, this is truly a show not to miss! Each year, friends and neighbors crowd along a two-mile stretch of Narragansett Parkway anxiously awaiting the march of the parade. Be it the fife and drums corps, the fire trucks, or the Shriners in their miniature cars, everyone has a favorite to look forward to!
Gaspee Days
Throughout Gaspee Days Parade weekend and during Sunday in the Park, a collection of colonial militia will be camped out in authentic revolutionary style. They’ll have no plumbing, no electricity and no cell phones! This Gaspee Days featurette in Pawtuxet Park is brought to you in collaboration with the Pawtuxet Rangers, RIM, our local, all-volunteer colonial militia.
Whether historic Pawtuxet Village is your lifelong home, you’re new in town, or perhaps just visiting. There’s sure to be something you love about Gaspee Days! Each season is packed full of fun, family-friendly and mostly free events for all to enjoy. Never been? Check it out! Been coming for years? We’re glad you keep coming back. Supporting our events means supporting our 501(c)(3) all-volunteer non-profit.
The Gaspee Affair
The Gaspee Days parade is part of Gaspee Days, a series of events commemorating the burning of a British revenue schooner in 1772.
In 1772, Rhode Island colonists attacked and burned the British customs ship HMS Gaspee. It had run aground near Warwick while enforcing unpopular trade laws. Led by merchant John Brown, the raiders wounded the captain and then destroyed the vessel. British officials launched an investigation but failed to charge anyone.
The act of defiance outraged Britain and energized colonial resistance, leading to the formation of committees of correspondence and, ultimately, the American Revolution.
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Learn more Revolutionary history in this complete guide to Revolutionary War Sites in New England. Brought to you by the New England Historical Society. Click here to order your copy in paperback, here to order an ebook.