Rhode Island has cultivated a distinctively layered memory of its independence. Bristol has hosted the longest continuously running Fourth of July celebration in America: since 1785, when Reverend Henry White held the first patriotic exercises. The Gaspee Affair was celebrated on its second anniversary in 1774, and Gaspee Point has hosted an annual Gaspee Days parade since 1965. The Rhode Island Historical Society, the fourth oldest in the nation, was chartered in 1822 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Gaspee, its founders motivated by preserving Revolutionary records before they were lost. In 1884, antiquarian James Slater began a campaign for May 4 to be recognized as Rhode Island Independence Day, which was finally adopted in 1909, creating an independence season stretching from May 4 to July 4. The Dorr Rebellion of 1842 invoked the Declaration directly to argue for expanded voting rights, and the 1976 Bicentennial became the occasion for Rhode Island's first gay pride parade—a legal battle affirming the right of assembly that resonated with the state's founding commitment to liberty of conscience.
Interviewees
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C. Morgan Grefe
- Executive Director, Rhode Island Historical Society
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Richard Ring
- Senior Director for Library & Museum Collections, Rhode Island Historical Society
