A helpful reminder. 'Early on Rhode Island was known as "Rogue's Island" since it's early settlers were religious dissidents and exiles. The title was reinvigorated in the pre-Revolutionary War years as the center for smuggling to avoid tarriffs and in the post-Revolutionary War years as the center for slavers. "Between 1709 and 1807, Rhode Island merchants sponsored at least 934 slaving voyages to the coast of Africa and carried an estimated 106,544 slaves to the New World." "Rogue's Island" was the home port for a variety of unsavory people.'
New London, CT was also a privateer port or at least that is what they said. It was Benedict Arnold who arrived to burn them out with the British Army. He set fire to the warehouses which exploded and spread fire to the entire town. Arnold crossed over to Groton where the good colonials were ready to fight on a hill overlooking the river. The British advanced up the hill and a white flag went up. The colonials thought they had surrendered and laid down their arms. The flag was only up for a few seconds and the British commander never saw it (that's their contention) and ordered a bayonet charge against men who had laid down their weapons. There is an monument marking the slaughter. The colonial fleet went up river and escaped destruction.
It was legal and strongly suggested that you kill any Rhode Islanders caught in Massachusetts until the 1920s.