We are obliged by necessity and it becomes our highest Duty to use every means with which God and Nature have furnished us, in support of our invaluable rights, & privileges to oppose that Power which is exerted only for our destruction.
On May 4, 2026, exactly 250 years since these words were spoken in the The Colony House (also known as the Old State House) on Benefit Street, a large crowd gathered in the same room, in the same building to hear the booming voice of Joe Wilson Jr., former Trinity Rep actor, and now the City of Providence’s Director of Arts, Culture and Tourism, speak them again.
He concluded “Happy Birthday Rhode Island.”
It was an impressive moment.
These words are part of Rhode Island’s revolutionary Act of Renunciation of May 4, 1776, which repealed the colony’s allegiance to King George III of England, and which preceded the more famous Declaration of Independence by exactly two months.
Back in the day, thirteen cannons were discharged after the renunciation was read aloud, as they were when George Washington visited in 1781, when there were also thirteen toasts. Neither working cannon nor alcoholic drinks were forthcoming in 2026, but bells rang thirteen times at each of the original colony houses in Providence, Newport, Bristol, East Greenwich and South Kingstown to mark the occasion.
Jeffrey Emidy, the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Preservation and Heritage Commission, was the master of ceremonies. Sporting a yellow bow tie, he described how we were celebrating two events—the grand reopening of the refurbished Old State House, and the Renunciation.
The building was looking very spiffy—the floors shone, the walls sported appropriate historical colors, and as one visitor remarked in my hearing, the windows opened. I have no idea whether they were formerly painted shut—but as it was a lovely day with a light breeze coming in from South Main Street, the open windows were a pleasure.
The building is now ADA compliant, which was not on the minds of the original builders in 1762. A stair lift was introduced more recently, though of course it wasn’t installed in 1762—or in 1801 or in 1867 when various alterations were made to the building. However, it was broken, and spare parts were unavailable. As Director Emidy later told The Providence Eye, accessibility was the initial trigger for the $4 million, 18-month restoration project. The initial project, which included installation of a ramp, an elevator, and better door handles, “snowballed” into a grander scheme, according to Emidy. As any householder knows, one small job leads to another. Large grants were obtained from Save America’s Treasures, the Federal Government, and also from the RI General Assembly Capital Fund. The result, as seen by this visitor on May 4, is splendid.
In Emidy’s speech he compared the burning of the British revenue schooner HMS Gaspee and the Renunciation itself with the current tv show The Real Housewives of Rhode Island. The show is, he insisted, merely a reboot of revolutionary Rhode Island in the 1770s. He claimed to have only seen one episode, but it seems someone threatened to (or maybe actually did) torch a boat, and later there was a break-up letter.
As this writer has not seen any of the episodes she is not sure the analogy is correct, but as an English-born long-time Rhode Island resident she happily renounced her allegiance to foreign potentates, as required in the naturalization ceremony. And as a historian she’s convinced that the burning of the Gaspee as an act of disobedience was at least as important as the Boston Tea Party, and that Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence was very elegant, but a little late.
Perhaps Massachusetts and Virginia had better PR.
For more information about upcoming programming commemorating RI’s 250th anniversary, visit rhodeisland250.org. Upcoming Providence-based events include a tour of the JWU Culinary Museum at the Harborside Campus on Wednesday, May 13 and Thursday, May 14.
Jane Lancaster has lived in Providence for almost forty years. She is a historian and author and her first historical novel (which deals with Revolutionary era Rhode Island) is due to be published soon.
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