- Well, all we have to do is look to good old Harvard up in Massachusetts, where historians were writing the history of the American Revolution.

And they didn't wanna travel very far, and they found this story about hurling tea into the harbor, and they made a big deal out of it.

- [Pamela] And that big deal up in Boston more than 250 years ago has been known ever since as the moment American colonists would begin to break away from the empire.

But could they have gotten that all wrong?

(guns cracking) (flutes sounding) Was a small group of Rhode Islanders really responsible for sparking America's fight for freedom?

There are those who ardently believe so.

- [Marchers] Boston's not the first shot.

- [Pamela] Every year, Warwick celebrates Gaspee Days, commemorating a naval assault by local colonists taking aim at the British customs schooner the HMS Gaspee.

The annual parade runs right past the spot offshore where the first crack at freedom took place.

Most history books credit Massachusetts as the cradle of the American Revolution, but.

- [Group] Just a minute, man, Boston's not the first shot.

- [Pamela] That's the motto being engaged in a war of words with neighboring Massachusetts.

It's a campaign to drum up what some claim is a more accurate historical record.

The ringleader, Bob Burke, restaurateur, raconteur, and revolutionary?

- Total revolutionary, absolutely.

We're gonna create a revolution here in Rhode Island, and we're going to take back our rightful claim to history.

So where are you all from?

- [Pamela] Burke is rallying support at his Pot au Feu restaurant in Providence, where he's added on a tavern as a visitor's center.

Tourists from around the country stop here to learn about the nation's history through food.

They sample colonial favorites, chowder and cod.

Also on the menu, a discussion of Burke's bold action to set the record straight.

- And what we have done is is that we have actually sent out cease and desist orders to all those folks, Lexington, Concord, Boston, Massachusetts.

- [Pamela] Burke has even sent these legal documents to the secretary of the interior.

He believes it is a clear case of identity theft, and Massachusetts is reaping a huge economic benefit.

- The Gaspee really is disturbing, because you go to Boston, and my gosh, they are earning, truly, billions of dollars from tourists from around the world who crave to hear the story of freedom.

There are laws against identity theft.

There's a law against defrauding people by telling them that you've got something, that it's authentic and genuine, and you sell it to them, and they pay good money for that.

- Isn't this all just a tempest in a teapot?

- No, no, no.

Boston's a tempest in a teapot.

Rhode Island is the true beginnings of the Revolution.

- [Pamela] That first major act of armed rebellion and bloodshed took place on the night of June 9, 1772, 18 months before the Boston Tea Party and three years before the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Merchant ships of Rhode Island smugglers were being boarded and subjected to taxation without representation from the royal revenue ship the HMS Gaspee.

- So you can imagine that Lieutenant William Duddingston, the captain of that ship, was not a well-liked man in the colony of Rhode Island.

They disliked him so much, they all decided that they would trick him into running aground.

- [Pamela] While stranded on a sandbar at low tide in the moonlight.

- They row out right from that wharf, eight longboats with muffled oars, being very quiet.

They get down off Pawtuxet to where he's run aground.

They spread out, surround him.

They call the captain out.

He comes out in his nightshirt.

Joseph Bucklin takes a shot, hits him.

He goes down, the 29 sailors panic.

Our sailors clamor aboard, take them prisoner.

We light the ship on fire, flames get down to the powder magazine and kaboom, the first fireworks ever on Narragansett Bay.

- [Pamela] A king's ransom was offered for the names of the raiders, yet even with the huge bounty, no one revealed the identities of the patriot perpetrators.

- And the reason that our own university, Brown, wasn't writing about it is because they didn't wanna put the names down and tell the story.

Who knew when the king might send his armies and navies back and take over the United States?

- [Pamela] Burke, a fourth-generation Rhode Islander, is so passionate about local history, he created the Independence Trail, a three-mile green line walking tour through Providence with 36 historic stops.

- Increasingly now, people wanna do it on their phone, so we're now adapting our app.

- For now, he's content to stir the pot, pitting Massachusetts' Minuteman against Rhode Island's Independent Man.

But after a few more letters to cease and desist, he says he's prepared to take his claim to federal court.

You're serious about this?

- I'm absolutely serious.

- [Pamela] He says, especially today, in a world confronting fake news and AI.

- There's a very, very serious side to this that addresses this issue of what information can freely be disseminated, and what the obligations are for the people who are disseminating that information to make sure that that information is as accurate as possible.

And in America, thank God, our founding fathers established the courts, and the courts are there to settle these kinds of differences between two states.

- You don't think the judge is gonna throw this out?

- I think that the judge is going to do exactly what any serious federal judge does, he will, we hope, hear the evidence, listen to both sides of the case, argue it out.

- [Pamela] And he says the timing is right.

There may be a groundswell of interest in his case because 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

(fire hissing) In the meantime, Burke is having a bit of fun lighting up what he hopes will be a battle royal for first dibs in American history books.

- If we can engender that pride for generations of Rhode Islanders to come, think of what we can do with that confidence.

Think of what the state can become with the confidence that it has in its heritage, in its grounding, in its foundation.

You know, look at this white hair.

I'm not gonna be on this planet forever.

And if I can leave that as a legacy to the people of Rhode Island, a belief in themselves, a belief in what they did and how they did it, then I think that that will be something worthwhile to have left behind.