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The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot
The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot of 1775, was a covert operation where Bermudians
sympathetic to the American Revolution stole about 100 barrels of British
gunpowder from a magazine in St. George’s, Bermuda, and delivered it to
American ships. This supply was vital for the Continental Army, which was
critically short on powder early in the war.
St. George Tucker, a 22-year-old Virginian studying law at the College of
William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, took part in the plot. Born in Bermuda
to a prominent family, he had moved to Virginia around 1771 and was living
there in 1775. His father, Henry Tucker, a leading Bermudian merchant,
negotiated the deal with Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris in Philadelphia,
trading the gunpowder for an exemption from the Continental Congress's trade
embargo on British colonies. Tucker shared details about the lightly guarded
magazine with Americans, including a letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 8,
1775, pleading for relief from the embargo and confirming the powder's
vulnerability. On the night of August 14, 1775, he helped roll the barrels from
the magazine to Tobacco Bay for loading onto American ships.
Tucker returned to Virginia after the raid, served in the Continental Army (where he was wounded twice), became a prominent lawyer, judge, and law professor.
