Progressive historians in the early 20th century were interested in the economic motives of historical actors. They highlighted the ways in which large, corporate business interests were not always compatible with the interest of common people in a democracy. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. and Charles and Mary Ritter Beard imposed their belief in the economic motivations of historical actors onto the larger demographic, geographic, and social changes in the colonies. According to these writers, the attack on the Gaspee was not motivated by Rhode Islanders finally taking a stand against an over-bearing and over-stepping British Navy, but it was the merchants of Providence and Newport challenging the revenue enforcement of the London government. The merchants had numerous family and commercial ties to the colonial legislature and to the governor's office. America's revolutionary heroes, at the turn of the century, were more likely to be portrayed as statesmen and capable politicians, not revolutionaries or radicals.
