The Greatest Blessing, the Heaviest Curse: The Tribulations of a Young Man Amid the Outbreak of Hostilities in Pre-Revolutionary America

They ignore and insult the divine rights of kings. In the waters of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island tension is high between British Naval authorities and American colonists. The situation in, "this little sty of a colony," erupts when, "wealthy merchants wearing fine buckled shoes and men with no shoes who were just drunk and looking for a good fight," board, ransack and burn His Majesty's tax ship, the Gaspee. Depending on one's point of view, this act of violence against the motherland could be seen as the protection of legitimate commerce by the locals . . . or outright terrorism committed by, "Lilliputians . . . who ignore and insult the divine rights of kings." Walking the fine line between patriotism and treason, Asa Bentley becomes ensnared in the Royal Inquiry into this event.