...The Boston Massacre was an event, which led to the death of five colonists after British soldiers when ordered to fire upon them on March 5th, 1770. Much controversy surrounds the incident, as there seems to be a few different stories of what truly happened. Regardless, many people believe the Boston Massacre was the spark that ignited the Revolutionary War. My efforts will be focused on figuring our what really happened, and what events caused the British officers to shoot into the crowd of colonists. The incident took place on King Street (which is now called State Street today), on an early morning on the 5th of March in front of the British Sentry called Private Hugh White. Edward Gerrish, an apprentice of a wigmakers, began yelling at a British officer, lieutenant John Goldfinch for an unpaid bill. Gerrish left, but eventually came back hours later and began throwing rocks at the lieutenant. Soon, many colonists joined in and threw rocks themselves. At this point, Goldfinch had reached his boiling point, and challenged Gerrish before striking him with his musket. As the evening progressed, the crowd outside the sentry grew larger and larger and continued to harass the British officers. Meanwhile, Captain Thomas Preston overlooked the entire situation as it escalated. He immediately ordered 8 soldiers to help control the situation before it got out of hand. As the soldiers approached, with muskets loaded, the crowd of nearly 400 began to surround the outnumbered officers...
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...The Boston Massacre happened in March 5, 1770 during the evening. In the Boston Massacre, British soldiers killed five inhabitants and wounded six inhabitants. Captain Thomas Preston was responsible for the British soldiers which killed five inhabitants. Whether Captain Thomas Preston gave the order “fire” or not is a controversial issue. Although there are lots of witnesses who argued they were sure that he gave the order, there were also lots of witnesses who argued they were sure that he was not gave the “fire” order. Although the evidences not give us a certain idea that Captain Thomas Preston was guilty or not, because the evidences are controversial, evidences strongly suggest that he was not guilty, he presumably did not give the order “fire”. During the 1760s and the first days of the 1770s the tension in the Boston was high because of the Stamp Act and the other new taxes which were going to be applied, known as “Townshend Duties”. “… men such as Samuel Adams were encouraging their fellow Bostonians to be even bolder in their remonstrance.”(Wheeler, Becker & Glover, 84). Because of the inhabitant’s uneasy, the British government ordered some regiments of soldiers in Boston. However, bringing soldiers in the Boston did not bring the peace in the Boston; instead it increased the tension which was already ready to increase. The disputes between the soldiers and inhabitants started slowly, but by bid. There was a reaction to the soldiers as well as to the British sympathizer...
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...Boston Massacre | The Rebellion of the American People | By Sarah Burgess, James Kresa, Ryan Flynn, and Nick Zappier | | HIS 101 Prof Sundell HIS 101 Prof Sundell There are many things that are considered for leading to the American Revolution and one idea is that of oppression. Oppression is defined as “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power” and “something that oppresses especially in being an unjust or excessive exercise of power.” (Merriam-Webster, 2014) Many colonists were dissatisfied with the Townsend Acts, which imposed import taxes, on things such as tea, glass, paper and other products from England. This was adding tension, along with the presence of British troops in the city of Boston. Rebellion was becoming evident among colonists, who felt that the British were making too strong of a presence and trying to have too much control over them. In reference to our first document, “A Monumental Inscription on the Fifth of March,” Isaiah Thomas details his disgust for the release of the murderous behavior of the British soldiers. He shares his feelings how justice may have not been served here by the court appointed judges, but it will be served in Hell. This article shows how many felt how the British were not held responsible for the slaughter deaths of the five colonists and the injuries of others. The colonists felt they had the right to protest the presence of the British troops and the unfair taxes. Thomas expresses the frustration of the...
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...The event that took place in Boston on March 5, 1770 was not a massacre. A massacre is considered an attack in which a large number of people are violently slaughtered and killed. On that day, colonists had weapons to defend themselves from the British. It would not be considered a massacre because of their ability to fight back and the fact that only 3 colonists died after the fight. The action on March 5 was just an unfair fight and it does not fall under the category of a massacre. The colonists that fought with the British Redcoats in Boston on March 5 had weapons to help defend themselves. The colonists used clubs and other weapons to harm the British. According to Document 3, Account of the Boston Massacre, “A townsman with a cudgel...
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...The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. The event took place on King Street, Massachusetts. During this event, the British soldiers ruthlessly murdered five innocent civilians and injured six others. The growing tension between the colonists and the British soldiers was a direct result of the Townshend Acts of 1768. The continuous rivalry between the two progressed into a violent memory in American history. The British soldiers that participated in the Boston Massacre should have been sent to prison because they took it upon themselves to open fire against civilians rather than reason with the defenseless colonists. Therefore the soldiers’ barbaric actions cannot be justified. The British soldiers that took arms against the civilians...
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...Kaitlyn Lott #6 Mr. Robeson Social Studies August 30, 2017 Boston Massacre Source Summary 1. The Captain remembered British soldiers were not welcomed when they arrived in Boston. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Many of the people living in Boston did not like the soldiers at all, only a few were known to be friends of the soldiers. However, Samuel Hemmingway said, “one evening I heard him [Killroy, a British soldier] say, he would never miss an opportunity, when he had one, to fire on the inhabitants[people of Boston], and that he had wanted to have an opportunity ever since he landed.” When a soldier from the 14th regiment was on trial, the Boston judge commented that the soldiers were on their own from now on. The judge also pointed...
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...“FIVE DEAD ON KING STREET! BRITISH SOULIDERS ARE MURDERS!” That is just some thing that would be yelled after the Boston Massacre. What is the Boston Massacre you may ask? It was soldiers taking self-defense and ending up as murders. The time is 1770; its still cold out and there is snow on the ground. A group of drunkards are looking for a fight when they see a British solider. They start to throw snow and get rowdy. The British solider hit one of them with the butt of his musket when he started to fight with him. That just got the ball rolling downhill from there. The drunkards and the group that started to form scared the solider. He calls for backup. Now a group of 8 against 300, these 300 are pushing them against a wall, causing the soldiers...
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...In colonial America during the late 1700’s revolutionary sympathetic newspapers such as the Boston Gazette printed stories propagandizing the ideals of the patriots with the most incendiary of these being the account of the Boston massacre published on March 12, 1770. Along with this account of the events, we have another from Captain Thomas Preston, who was in charge of the British soldiers during the incident, from his trial. By analyzing these two accounts it is clear that the events that occurred on March 5, 1770, were exaggerated by The Boston Gazette as a form of propaganda to spur revolution rather than an accurate account of the event that took the lives of 5 colonists and injured 6. In the account of events published in the gazette,...
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...and spread wide over Boston. On the day of the funeral all shops and stores were closed due to the incident that occurred. Thousands of people gathered to remember the five that died. The colonies became a nation working, thinking, and grieving together. It was a crucial step forward for the peoples of the colonies as they began to wonder whether they were truly subjects of such a cruel nation, subjects of their own nation. There were lots and lots of newspapers and articles published each of them were about the soldiers involved in crisis...
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...The Boston Massacre is known as the murdering of five American colonists by British soldiers. The exact cause of the Boston Massacre is unknown. Most commonly, it is said that the colonists were tormenting the soldiers that were simply trying to do their job.The colonists were said to be unarmed but they still had sticks and snowballs they were using as weapons. They were also yelling rude comments and daring the soldiers to fire. The colonists provoked the British soldiers to open fire on them. The colonists were basically asking to be shot at by yelling fire in a midst of a large group of soldiers with loaded guns, who were just waiting to hear that word come from their captain. Colonists also provoked the soldiers by hitting them with sticks and...
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...The Boston Massacre was a crucial event in shaping the American Revolutionary War. The massacre occurred when British soldiers opened fire on the townspeople of Boston, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There were many events leading up to the massacre and many resounding effects. Tensions in Boston had been steadily rising with the implantation of taxes, the boycott of British goods, the Liberty riot, and the occupation of Boston by British troops leading to the Boston Massacre, which provided martyrs for freedom and gained support for war throughout the colonies. The taxation of Britain on the American colonists was the start of a series of events leading to the Boston Massacre. Taxes started being imposed after the French and Indian War,...
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...As time progressed in colonial Boston, disputes between colonists and English sympathizers and soldiers began to become more and more common as more taxes were placed on those in the colonies. Some of these were rather violent. For example, in February of 1770, an angry crowd approached a British informer at his home and began to raid and destroy it. The incident resulted in the death of a young boy and a city drawn together in their distaste for the English. Not even a month later on March 5th, the conflict later known as the Boston Massacre took place. Like the death of the boy in February, this conflict became a rally for change in the eyes of the colonialists. But, there is conflict as to what happened that night due to accounts of what happened varying between colonists and British, and even between colonists themselves. What is known for sure is that on the evening of March 5th, a group of Bostonian boys began to throw snowballs at a sentry on duty. A small crowd began to support the boys and taunt the sentry, leading him to call for help. From there, the events drastically escalated to the point...
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...On March 5, 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts, a fight took place between the British soldiers and the colonists. The started all because of the Quartering Act. The colonists were ordered by King George III to house British soldiers when they were in the colonies. The colonists were, of course, unhappy about this, so they made sure the British felt unwelcome in America. On this fateful day in March, a group of about 30-40 colonists gathered in the town square. The colonists had provoked the British soldiers and that lead to what is now today as the ‘Boston Massacre’. A massacre is the purposeful killing of a group of people, which is more than one person, who are defenseless and not attacking. Did a massacre truly take place on March 5 of 1770; some sources say yes and some say otherwise. Based in the information that was gathered, a massacre did not take place on March 5, 1770 in Boston because both the colonists and the British were armed and attacking was an act self defense, on the British’s behalf....
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...On the day of March 5, 1770, The Boston Massacre took place. This should not have been labeled as a “massacre”. A massacre is the killing of defenseless people. Nothing but a small riot happened and both sides, the people and the british soldiers had weapons. The people were throwing snowballs with rocks inside and clubs at the british soldiers. This fatal accident happened when the people starting brewing trouble in Boston. The bostonians thought that the Boston Patriots were the worst, most dreadful , unpleasant people in the colonies. A noisy mob of citizens were throwing rocks and ice at the soldiers that were guarding the Boston Customs House. They were daring the soldiers to fire and picking on the soldiers about their uniforms, calling them “lobsterbacks”. The mod dared them to fire while the commander of the soldiers commanded they go home and that their pleas had no effect. The soldiers were forbidden to fire on the citizens. Someone in the mob had fired, knocking a soldier to the...
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...The Boston Massacre, also known as the “Incident on King Street,” occurred on March 5, 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts. Before the Boston Massacre occurred, colonists were irate due to the Townshend Acts which was created by the British that put tax on tea, glass, lead, paints, paper goods, and many other common items. These items would be made in Britain and the exported to the colonies; therefore, Britain decided to put a tariff on these items, which included a fee for exporting and trade. The colonists were irate because they were British citizens. The Boston Massacre began with a small argument between British Private Hugh White and a few colonists outside the Custom House in Boston on King Street. The argument escalated, more colonists gathered and began to harass Private Hugh White by throwing sticks and snowballs at him. Colonists continued to increase in numbers until there were over 50 colonists at the scene and soldiers were sent to the Custom House to maintain the argument....
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