Raise a Pint to the Revolution Recreates the Night Westerly Chose the American Cause
Raise a Pint to the Revolution will take Westerly back exactly 250 years on Friday, September 18, recreating a pivotal 1776 town meeting before shifting the celebration to Grey Sail Brewing for period music, beer, ale, rum, and a decidedly less serious round of Colonists-versus-Redcoats games.
This isn’t a generic Revolutionary War reenactment scheduled to coincide with America’s 250th anniversary.
The date is the point.
On September 18, 1776, Westerly men gathered and signed a declaration pledging allegiance to the newly independent American states. Contemporary town history records that 50 men enlisted in the Revolutionary forces after signing what was known as the Declaration or Test Act.
On September 18, 2026, Westerly will hold the meeting again.
The Evening Begins With the Meeting, Not the Beer
Organizers are dividing the event into two parts: The Meeting and The Celebration.
The first is a period reenactment of the actual town event that took place 250 years earlier.
Actors portraying figures from Revolutionary-era Westerly will recreate the gathering and the decision facing local residents in 1776.
Visitors won’t necessarily remain spectators.
The event invites modern-day “colonists” to sign their own allegiance to America before heading back for a pint.
The reenactment gives Raise a Pint to the Revolution something many semiquincentennial events can’t claim.
Westerly isn’t simply commemorating something that happened somewhere in America during the Revolution.
It’s reenacting something that happened in Westerly, on the same calendar date, a quarter of a millennium later.
Westerly Had Already Been Choosing Sides
The September 1776 gathering didn’t come out of nowhere.
Westerly’s break with British policy had been developing for years.
The town’s own historical record notes that on February 2, 1774, local freemen met and adopted resolutions condemning oppressive measures imposed by Great Britain, particularly the tax on tea.
Westerly’s 1919 history even characterized the episode as the town’s own “tea party.”
By then, resistance to British authority was spreading throughout Rhode Island.
And Westerly had a particularly important connection to the emerging national movement through one of the most prominent political figures in colonial Rhode Island.
Samuel Ward Took Westerly to the Continental Congress
Samuel Ward was born in Newport but became closely identified with Westerly after settling there.
He served as governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and became an outspoken opponent of British taxation.
In 1774, Rhode Island sent Ward and Stephen Hopkins to Philadelphia as delegates to the First Continental Congress.
Ward continued serving in the Continental Congress as the colonies moved toward independence.
He died in Philadelphia on March 25, 1776, only a few months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
But his family remained deeply connected to the war.
His son, Samuel Ward Jr., served in the Continental Army, becoming a captain in 1775 and major in 1776. He later served as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington and eventually became a lieutenant colonel.
For Westerly residents gathering in September 1776, the Revolution wasn’t distant news arriving from Philadelphia.
People from their own community were already part of it.
September 18, 1776 Was a Dangerous Time to Pick a Side
It’s easy to look backward from 2026 and imagine American independence as inevitable.
It wasn’t.
When Westerly’s men gathered on September 18, the Declaration of Independence was barely two months old.
And militarily, things weren’t going particularly well.
British forces had inflicted a major defeat on Washington’s army in the Battle of Long Island in late August. American forces withdrew from New York City in September, and the British occupied the city.
Just two days before Westerly’s meeting, American and British troops had fought at Harlem Heights.
Washington was still reporting on that engagement to the Continental Congress on September 18.
So the men gathering in Westerly weren’t signing onto a revolution whose outcome they knew.
They were choosing allegiance while the new nation was fighting for survival.
That makes the date considerably more interesting than simply saying Westerly supported independence.
They were committing themselves while the result was very much undecided.
Fifty Men Signed and Enlisted
Westerly’s historical record describes what followed succinctly.
On September 18, 1776, 50 men enlisted in the Revolutionary forces after signing the Declaration or Test Act.
That was a significant commitment for a small colonial town.
By 1777, Westerly’s population stood at only 1,812 people.
By 1781, the town had enrolled four companies of militia in addition to its quota serving in Continental battalions.
A history prepared for Westerly’s 250th anniversary in 1919 estimated that the combined military commitment ultimately absorbed about one-fifth of the town’s population.
The Revolution was not an abstract political debate here.
It took people out of homes, farms and businesses and put them into military service.
Raise a Pint to the Revolution is built around the moment that commitment became formal.
Then Comes the Party
Once Westerly has reenacted its revolutionary pledge, the evening becomes considerably less solemn.
The celebration takes place at Grey Sail Brewing, where organizers promise live period music, beer, ale and rum along with what they describe as “fuel for the Revolution.”
There will also be Colonist and Red Coat games.
The result should land somewhere between living history and a colonial tavern night.
That seems appropriate.
Taverns were important gathering places in 18th-century America, serving not merely as drinking establishments but as social centers where travelers exchanged news, residents debated politics and communities conducted business.
Beer, ale, cider, punch and rum were thoroughly embedded in colonial social life.
So while nobody should mistake a modern craft brewery for an 18th-century tavern, finishing a Revolutionary reenactment over a drink isn’t as historically incongruous as it might sound.
Rum Has a Particularly Good Claim to the Glass
Beer gets top billing in the event’s title, but rum may have the stronger Revolutionary-era New England credentials.
The triangular Atlantic trade made rum an important part of the colonial economy.
New England distilleries turned imported Caribbean molasses into enormous quantities of rum, which became one of the region’s characteristic spirits.
Rhode Island was particularly involved in the colonial rum trade.
That history makes Grey Sail an unusually appropriate modern host.
The Westerly brewery shares its Canal Street property with South County Distillers, giving the celebration access to both brewing and distilling traditions.
The drinks have changed considerably since 1776.
The idea of gathering together over them hasn’t.
Grey Sail Has Its Own Westerly History
Grey Sail Brewing is much younger than the event it is commemorating, but its home has a history of its own.
The brewery opened in Westerly in 2011, brewing its first batch of Flagship Ale on November 11 of that year.
Its production facility occupies a brick industrial building at 63 Canal Street that was constructed near the end of the 1920s for the Westerly Macaroni Factory.
The building later served other commercial uses before Grey Sail transformed it into a brewery.
Next door, the Grey Sail Taproom and courtyard have developed into a gathering place for live music, markets and community events.
For September 18, the brewery becomes Westerly’s temporary Revolutionary tavern.
The Babcock-Smith House Connects the Celebration to 1776
One of the event sponsors is the Babcock-Smith House Museum, and its connection to Revolutionary Westerly runs particularly deep.
The museum centers on the historic home of Dr. Joshua Babcock, one of colonial Westerly’s most significant residents.
The Georgian house dates to around 1734, putting it squarely within the world being recreated during Raise a Pint to the Revolution.
Babcock was a physician, public official and prominent citizen whose life stretched across Westerly’s transition from British colony to American town.
He was also Westerly’s first postmaster.
The town’s first post office was established in 1776, the same year as the meeting being commemorated.
Its first-year receipts totaled the wonderfully precise sum of one pound, three shillings and eight pence.
Before that, Westerly’s nearest post office had been in New London.
Today the Babcock-Smith House preserves both that colonial history and another enormous chapter of Westerly’s story through its exhibits devoted to the local granite industry.
Three Westerly Organizations Are Behind the Night
Raise a Pint to the Revolution is sponsored by the Westerly 250th Commission, Westerly Historical Society and Babcock-Smith House Museum.
That combination helps explain why the event goes beyond costumes and colonial-themed drinking.
The historical organizations have an actual local event to reconstruct.
The Westerly 250th effort, meanwhile, places it within the much larger America 250 commemoration marking the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Rhode Island is observing the anniversary through RI 250, with events taking place throughout the state.
But September 18 gives Westerly something unusually specific to commemorate.
Exactly 250 years earlier, townspeople were deciding what allegiance meant in a country that was only weeks old.
Your $10 Ticket Buys More Than a Pint
The ticket covers participation in the commemorative event rather than functioning as a prepaid bar tab. Alcohol purchases should be expected to follow Grey Sail’s normal service rules, including age and identification requirements.
The evening is scheduled from 5:30 to 9 p.m., with the recreated meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m.
That leaves time to arrive, settle in and get oriented before Westerly turns the clock back to 1776.
The Best Part Is Knowing How the Story Ends
The people at the original meeting didn’t have that luxury.
They couldn’t know that Washington would survive 1776.
They couldn’t know about Saratoga.
They couldn’t know France would enter the war.
They couldn’t know Cornwallis would surrender at Yorktown.
They couldn’t know there would someday be a United States celebrating its 250th birthday.
And they certainly couldn’t know that 250 years to the day after their meeting, another group of Westerly residents would gather on Canal Street, raise glasses and reenact their decision.
We know what happened next.
For one evening, Westerly gets to return to the moment when they didn’t.
Details
Event: Raise a Pint to the Revolution
Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
Time: 5:30–9 p.m.
Reenacted Meeting: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Grey Sail Brewing
Address: 63 Canal Street, Westerly, RI 02891
Occasion: 250th anniversary of Westerly’s September 18, 1776 Revolutionary-era meeting and pledge
The Meeting: Period reenactment of the historic Westerly town event with actors portraying Revolutionary-era figures
Audience Participation: Guests will have an opportunity to sign an allegiance to America
The Celebration: Live period music, beer, ale, rum and Colonist-versus-Redcoat games
Tickets: $10 base ticket price; online processing fees may apply
Food & Drink: Available as part of the evening’s celebration; alcoholic beverages are subject to normal age and identification requirements
Sponsors: Westerly 250th Commission, Westerly Historical Society and Babcock-Smith House Museum
Historical Date: September 18, 1776, exactly 250 years before the event
Historical Significance: Westerly history records that 50 men enlisted in the Revolutionary forces after signing the Declaration or Test Act on that date
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.