History
Native Americans called the island "Nomsussmuc", and Indians sold the island in 1658. Early Newport colonists used the island as a goat pasture. An earthen fort was built on Goat Island in 1703 during the War of Spanish Succession, and it was named "Fort Anne" after the reigning Queen Anne.
On Friday, 19 July 1723, twenty-six pirates (Charles Harris, Thomas Linicar, Daniel Hyde, Stephen Mundon, Abraham Lacy, Edward Lawson, John Tomkins, Francis Laughton, John Fisgerald, William Studfield, Owen Rice, William Read, John Bright, Thomas Hazel, William Blades (Rhode Island), Thomas Hagget, Peter Cues, William Jones, Edward Eaton, John Brown, James Sprinkly, Joseph Sound, Charles Church, John Waters, Thomas Powell (Connecticut), and Joseph Libbey) who had been hanged at nearby Bull's Point (Gravelly Point) after being tried in Newport between 10 and 12 July, were buried on the north end of Goat Island, on the shore, between high and low water mark. "The pirates were all young men, most of them natives of England" (Olden Times Series 5). The following is taken from The Salem Observer, November 11, 1843: "...this was the most extensive execution of pirates that ever took place at one time in the Colonies, it was attended by a vast multitude from every part of New England." (also reference Gutenberg Library, The Olden Times Series, Volume 5, by Henry M. Brooks.)
In 1738 a stone fort was built and renamed "Fort George" after King George II. In 1764 Newporters took over Fort George and fired shots at HMS St. John a British ship with a crew that had allegedly stolen from local merchants. In 1769 Rhode Islanders burned the HMS Liberty, a customs ship, when it drifted to the north end of Goat Island (near where the pirates were buried) in another early act of rebellion against British rule.
Read more about this topic: Goat Island (Rhode Island)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)