...of the day was Thomas Preston. He rushed to the site with seven British soldiers to protect the sentry. When he arrived, Preston and the seven soldiers tried to calm down the crowd but there hard effort was worth nothing because the crowd continued to disturb the sentry. When...
Words: 1593 - Pages: 7
...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...
Words: 1610 - Pages: 7
...war, taxes and occupation. The discontent boiled over into riot on the evening of 5 March 1770, when Captain Thomas Preston and his seven guards arrived to relieve a Sentinel of his harassers amidst taunts of “you bloody backs, you lobster scoundrels, fire if you dare!” from an ever-swelling crowd of eighty. One of Preston’s men responded to being struck with a weapon by firing into the crowd. The ensuing chaos left five colonists dead, six more injured and the city inflamed. Whilst it is almost certain that Preston didn’t order his men to fire, he would have faded into the mists of history, had his innocence not been later challenged during the American Revolution. Patriots idolised and misconstrued the incident; John Adams claims it laid “the foundation of American independence” from their British tyrants. Their flawed imageries of the so-called ‘Boston Massacre’ reverberated across the Thirteen Colonies, and it’s the idealism they propagated more so than the incident itself which stirred colonists to revolting against the Crown. The odds had never in Preston’s favour that faithful night, indeed it was a mixture of the provocative taunts from the ever-swelling crowd and the darkness that befell the pre-electric Boston streets that make faithful recollections difficult to obtain. However unfortunate the consequences of the incident, it is nearly certain that Preston hadn’t issue the command to fire. Whilst undisputed are the facts that the guards’ muskets were half-cocked and...
Words: 1338 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 544 - Pages: 3
...The Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre played a big role during the 1770’s by serving as an anti-British propaganda to enrage citizens and have the responsibility to eventually rise up and start the Revolutionary War. Citizens knew that they had the right to be free, but were growing angry because the British Parliament were raising taxes and placing taxes on them for more things. Without the Boston Massacre tensions leading up to war, and our freedom may not have happened at all. Since 1765, the people of Boston had been heading protests against British taxation: the Stamp Act then the Townshend Act. In 1767, The British Parliament passed the Townshend Act, enraging colonists. Citizens believed that the British didn’t have the right to tax them because they did not elect their representatives in Parliament. Only the Massachusetts Assembly, whose members were elected every year, had the right to levy taxes on its citizens. The Townshend Acts imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea imported into the colonies. Townshend hoped the acts would defray imperial expenses in the colonies, but many Americans viewed the taxation as an abuse of power, resulting in the passage of agreements to limit imports from Britain. The East India Company was on the verge of collapse and Parliament hoped to boost the company's bottom line by allowing them to sell tea more cheaply to the colonists. Also, Boston was occupied by British soldiers in October, 1768 to help protect customs...
Words: 856 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 661 - Pages: 3
...On March 5, 1770, the infamous riot known as the Boston Massacre took place. The event took place during the snowy night where colonists gathered at the Customs House in Boston to taunt the British soldiers in front of the building. The mobs of people were protesting the occupation of British troops in the colonies. The article “Boston Massacre” written by History says “The British troops had been billeted in Boston in October 1768 after repeated requests from British customs officials, who had been harassed and intimidated because of their efforts to enforce the Townshend Acts.” The soldiers’ captain, Thomas Preston, order his men to aim their bayonets into the crowd. The colonists then reacted to this by throwing snowballs and any other...
Words: 467 - Pages: 2
...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,...
Words: 760 - Pages: 4
...ground. It is March 5, 1770, infamously known as The Boston Massacre. While the events in March 1770 were embellished on both the British and Colonists sides, the facts still remain. The accounts of the Boston Massacre, according to British officer Captain Thomas Preston, engender him as an innocent victim. Preston embellishes his account of events by depicting the colonists as savages, portraying himself as the victim, and hiding his shame of losing control of the situation Preston gives true accounts of the events of March 1770; however, he warps the events to rationalize his actions. In his version, he often describes the colonists as uncivilized and “insolent.” The colonists used “the most cruel and horrid Threats against the Troops” Preston illustrates the colonist as wild people, rioting, chanting, and beyond any means of control. Undergoing daily fist fights with the colonists, not once does he cite the actions of his soldiers for the brawls. He, in fact, states that every aggressive...
Words: 533 - Pages: 3
...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,...
Words: 1623 - Pages: 7
...As tensions between the New England colonists and the British rumors of violent protests spread rampant. As the tension increased the Boston massacre occurred, becoming one of the many catalysts that started the American Revolution. As a result of the French and Indian war, the British economy began to decline. In an attempt to remedy this economic downfall, the English parliament implemented the stamp tax laws onto the American colonies. This tax was short lived; however, in its place came the Townshend acts which placed several more taxes on “previously untaxed items”. These unwanted taxes brought into question “the legitimacy of Parliament’s power to tax the colonies” as a source to pay for British debt. This outrage moved the House of Representatives to denounce the Townshend act and publically support the resistance of British taxes. The many taxes also angered the colonists due to their inability to adequately affect any of parliament’s decisions. As a colony under the British Empire, the New English colonies could send their representatives to England to make negotiations with parliament. However,...
Words: 629 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 1163 - Pages: 5
...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....
Words: 492 - Pages: 2
...War was the conflict between Great Britain’s 13 colonies and the British government. One of the causes was The Boston Tea Party, which was the protest against taxation on tea, and took place on the night of December 16, 1773. The Sons of Liberty led by Samuel Adams and The Sons of Liberty boarded three ships, dressed as Indians, and threw 342 containers of tea overboard. Another cause is The French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years War. This was the conflict between Britain and France in the colonies for rights to the Ohio River Valley. The last cause is The Boston Massacre, which was a squabble that took place on March 5, 1770, between a “patriot” mob and a squad of British soldiers. All of these causes made more...
Words: 812 - Pages: 4
...The Boston Massacre was a fight between some Patriots and British soldiers that took place on March 5th, 1770, after the repealing of most Townsend Acts. After the soldiers stopped shooting, five Patriots were killed and ten were injured. The Boston Massacre was a small tragedy that was caused by disobedient and undisciplined British Soldiers. According to the testimony of Benjamin Burdick, a watchman who was at the scene of the Boston Massacre, he had asked one of the British soldiers if he was going to fire, to which the soldier replied, “Yes by the eternal god.” This implies that at least some of the soldiers were willing to go against their commander’s orders to not shoot the colonists. Burdick also wrote, “I heard the word ‘fire’...
Words: 349 - Pages: 2
