📍 During a recent visit to Bermuda, the pilot of the boat that gave us a tour told us about this incident. He made us aware of its obvious absence from all but the most detailed of history books, yet played such a crucial role in the revolutionary conflict. He said it could be argued that it was so decisive that it could have altered the course of history had it not succeeded.
The Night 100 Barrels of Gunpowder Changed American History
(And Why You've Never Heard About It)
Picture this: It's a moonless night in August 1775. While George Washington paces anxiously at his headquarters outside Boston, desperately calculating how many rounds of ammunition his army has left (spoiler: about nine shots per man), a group of shadowy figures are breaking into a British powder magazine 600 miles away in Bermuda. What happens next might be the most important heist you've never heard of.
⛈️ The Perfect Storm of Desperation
By the summer of 1775, both the fledgling Continental Army and the tiny island of Bermuda were facing existential crises—and their mutual desperation would create one of history's most unlikely alliances.
🎯 Washington's Problem:
After the smoke cleared from Bunker Hill, the Continental Army's ammunition stores were nearly empty. Washington confided to his officers that they had "only enough ammunition to last a few hours" of serious fighting. The British were trapped in Boston, but if they discovered how weak the American position really was, the Revolution could end before it truly began.
🏝️ Bermuda's Problem:
The island had made a fatal economic miscalculation decades earlier, abandoning agriculture entirely to focus on shipbuilding and trade. By 1775, Bermuda imported virtually all of its food from the American colonies. When the Continental Congress slapped a trade embargo on all British territories in April 1775, Bermuda faced a stark choice: starve or commit treason.
👑 Enter the Tucker Dynasty
Colonel Henry Tucker wasn't about to let his island—or his family's merchant empire—wither away. The Tuckers had been power players in Bermuda since the early 1600s, with deep connections to Virginia's colonial elite. When Tucker sailed to Philadelphia to negotiate with the Continental Congress, he came with a simple proposition: lift the embargo on Bermuda in exchange for salt.
The Congress said no.
But then Tucker noticed something interesting in the embargo legislation—a loophole that allowed trade for military supplies. Meanwhile, Benjamin Franklin leaned in with a different kind of deal. Bermuda had something the Americans desperately needed: a massive, poorly guarded powder magazine in St. George's containing about 100 barrels of gunpowder.
🔓 The Heist of the Century
August 14, 1775 - The Night of the Raid
On the night of August 14, 1775, the plan went into action. The conspirators didn't just walk up to the magazine—that would have been suicide. Instead, they climbed onto the roof and literally cut a hole just big enough to lower a man inside. Once in, they forced open the doors from within, all while knowing that one spark could blow them and half of St. George's sky high.
But here's where it gets really interesting: moving 100 barrels of gunpowder (we're talking thousands of pounds) required serious manpower. Governor Bruere later wrote that it "must have taken a Considerable number of People," including, as he delicately put it, "some Negroes, to assist as well as White Persons of consequence."
⚠️ The harsh reality? The Bermudian elite forced their enslaved workers to do the most dangerous part of the job—hauling volatile gunpowder barrels in the dark of night, across 20 miles of rough terrain to a remote harbor on the island's west end. The white conspirators got the glory (and avoided prosecution); the enslaved laborers bore all the risk.
⛵ The Great Escape
Two American ships—the Lady Catherine and the Charles Town and Savannah Packet—waited at the remote harbor. They'd filed false papers claiming to be carrying building stones to Barbados. By dawn, they were dots on the horizon.
"Governor Bruere discovered the theft the next morning and immediately sent a customs ship in pursuit. But the customs vessel was outgunned and outrun—the Americans had come prepared for a fight. Bruere was left raging at the harbor, calling it the most 'heinous' and 'atrocious' crime imaginable."
🎯 The Domino Effect
That stolen gunpowder arrived just in time to save the Revolution—literally.
📦 Distribution & Impact
Philadelphia (50 barrels)
Continental Army's general stores. Enabled Washington to maintain the Siege of Boston through March 1776.
Charleston (50 barrels)
Repelled British invasion in June 1776. Outnumbered 5:1, defenders held the city. British didn't try again for 4 years.
🤐 The Cover-Up
Here's the kicker: despite Governor Bruere offering rewards and launching investigations, no one was ever prosecuted. Why? Because the conspiracy reached into the highest levels of Bermudian society. Members of the House of Assembly who voted on the reward for information were likely in on the plot themselves. The wall of silence was absolute.
The stress literally killed Governor Bruere—he died in 1780 from what historians describe as "stress-related health complications." His son took over and cracked down so hard on smuggling that even the powerful Tucker family had to stop their illicit trade.
♟️ The Long Game
The Bermuda Gunpowder Incident exposed a glaring weakness in Britain's Atlantic defenses. How could they claim to "rule the waves" when a supposedly loyal colony could so easily hand over military supplies to rebels?
The British response was swift and lasting: they transformed Bermuda from a semi-autonomous trading colony into one of the most fortified military bases in the Atlantic. Those 100 barrels of stolen gunpowder led to centuries of British military investment in Bermuda, fundamentally changing the island's destiny.
💡 Why This Matters
Your boat pilot in Bermuda was right—this incident could have changed everything. Without that gunpowder, Washington might have been forced to retreat from Boston. Charleston might have fallen in 1776 instead of holding out until 1780. The Revolution could have sputtered out before the Declaration of Independence was even signed.
Yet this pivotal moment remains largely absent from our history books. Perhaps because it doesn't fit the neat narrative of idealistic patriots fighting for freedom. The Bermuda conspirators weren't motivated by liberty or self-determination—they just wanted to keep their businesses running and their families fed. They were, as one historian puts it, "obedient servants of opportunity."
"Sometimes, that's how history really works. Not through grand ideological gestures, but through desperate people making desperate choices, through loopholes and lucky timing, through enslaved workers hauling gunpowder in the dead of night while their enslavers cut deals with revolutionaries."
The next time someone tells you that history is written by the victors, remember the Bermuda Gunpowder Incident—a story where everyone involved had good reasons to forget it ever happened, but without which, there might not have been any American victors at all.
💬 Join the Conversation!
What do you think? Should this chapter of history get more attention in our textbooks? Have you discovered any other "forgotten" moments that changed the course of history?
Drop a comment below and let's discuss!
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