Analytical Essay: The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores'; (Mahin 1). A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.     

During the night of March 5, 1770, colonists gathered outside the Boston Customs House. As the crowd grew bigger, colonists started to throw “snowballs, oyster shells, and chunks of ice” at the soldiers. The soldiers panicked and fired at the colonists causing the death of five colonists and ten injured men. I believe that the cause of the Boston Massacre was due to the British. The reason why I blame the British is because, the British soldiers could have handled the situation, made unnecessary actions, and made the colonists angry with taxes and the Quartering act.

The colonist are at fault for the Boston Massacre because they were taunting the soldiers. For example according to Newton Prince an eyewitness, he said that he heard the colonist were calling the soldiers lobsters and

The Boston Massacre is one of the most controversial events in American history that occurred in Boston before the American Revolution. Certainly, it has a fundamental role in the development of America as a nation, which led it to have a huge motivation for revolution. A heavy British military presence and having very high taxes in the country were some of the main reasons that made Boston citizens very irritated. Thus, there were already many disagreements and tensions between inhabitants and the British that could have led to the Massacre. In this essay, I will carefully analyze three primary sources, and compare these to the interpretation given by HBO’s John Adams. In my view, these sources can be

On a moonlight night in the winter of 1770, a mob of American Colonists gather at the customs house and began taunting the British soldiers. Captain Tomas Preston ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join guard outside of the building. The colonists started throwing snowballs, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit, leading him to fire his rifle at the crowd. Soon, other soldiers began firing, and when it was over, five colonists lay either dead or dying. Three more were injured. Almost everyone will agree the Boston Massacre shouldn't have happened. This argument usually ends at the question of whose fault it was. Sure, the British did fire when they shouldn't have, but the colonists started the fight when they protested and taunted the

With Parliamentary laws and taxes imposed in the 1760s, colonists became rebellious towards British troops, which led to the Boston Massacre. During this occurrence, patriots were protesting towards the British soldiers and what led to another, gunshots fired at the colonists claimed the lives of five civilians. Thomas Preston, a commanding officer who was present during the Boston Massacre, was arrested and charged with murder as well as a separate trial from the other accused soldiers. Based off three witness testimonies, I believed that Preston did not give the order to fire and should not have been trialed against it.

Everyone always asks why there were only five people that died in the Boston massacre, it will be discovered today. The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770 in Boston Massachusetts at the Boston’s customs house. The British troops were sent to Boston in 1768, because of taxation. While the British soldiers were in Boston, the American colonist decided to mess with the Soldiers. As this was happening, the patriots had been protesting against the British troops. The British troops getting word from their captain, to get ready to guard and attack. As the crowd starts to rile this led to five people dying.

“Between the hours of nine and ten o’clock, being in my master’s house, was alarmed by the cry of fire, I ran down as far as the town-house, and then heard that the soldiers and the inhabitants were fighting in the alley… I then left them and went to King street. I then saw a party of soldiers loading their muskets about the Custom house door, after which they all shouldered. I heard some of the inhabitants cry out, “heave no snow balls”, others cried “they dare not fire”. The Boston massacre has been no massacre it was propaganda. The incident that happened March 5th, 1770 in the streets of Boston only killed five people and had six people with non fatal injuries. There were

Unsurprisingly, the Boston Gazette recorded this incident in a way that labeled the British soldiers as cold hearted killers. The Boston Massacre Historical Society provided the original words from the Boston Gazette on the Boston Massacre. Explaining how a soldier was wielding a very large sword, the article continues with how the soldier was using this massive weapon to try to start a fire. Some citizens of Boston confronted him and were sliced by the sword. Furthermore, this commotion caused both sides to gain supporters, and eventually the soldiers fired on the colonists killing four of them and wounding a few others. This deadly event did not change the minds of Parliament because by the time the news of this incident reached them they had already repealed the Townshend Acts. Therefore, the Boston Massacre showed the distrust between Britain and its

I believe that the British were more responsible for the Boston Massacre, but some would disagree. Some people would say that the colonists were more responsible for the Boston Massacre because they are the ones that made the British mad and wanted to get back at them. The colonists were bossing the British around and telling them what to do and the British didn’t want to listen to them. So they decided to start a battle and try to get their rights back and the colonists just set themselves up for

Was the Boston massacre a tragedy? The Boston massacre was seen as a massacre hence the name the Boston massacre. Affirmation from the court trials tell a clashing story than what has been told. The evidence I compiled from mass.Gov says there was a protest happening in front of a British government building that taxed the people in the new world. The British soldiers began to appear in the protest to control the outraged people, the protest began to turn violent with the tension growing. When the protesters took a notice to the soldiers with the guns which made the people involved in the unrestrained protest more aggravated. The protesters began assaulting the British with rocks, snow, and other projectiles while provoking the soldiers with

The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores”. A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.

Was the Boston Massacre really a massacre? In history, there are many events where the exact occurrences are not clear. The Boston Massacre, which took place on the evening of March 5, 1770, was absolutely no exception. Evidence is spotty, details can be lacking, and testimonies are often told from a personal and bias perspective. Determining the bias of each testimony is key to learning the motivations behind each witness, which in turn is key in deciphering the actual events of the Boston Massacre. One is right to wonder, through all of the conflicting testimonies, whether the Boston Massacre really was a massacre. The Boston Massacre is viewed with overwhelming bias and many contradictions in accounts exist, yet overall the “Boston

With revolution on the rise and independence in colonist minds, it starts to be clear that the definition of American is becoming more evident in British minds. With the first few acts such as the Stamp Acts, Quartering Acts, Tea Act, and etc., the British had placed on the colonists, the sense of patriotism becomes more common in all Americans. But the event of the Boston Massacre, which had troops of British soldiers fire upon a crowd of colonists, boosted the idea of freedom and furthered the hate of Britain by the colonists. This occurrence, although tragic, did help the colonists unite together and aided the revolution. It is unclear which side, colonists or the British, stimulated it into happening. However, I believe that the Americans are the ones to blame for this tragic event. The whole occurrence had the British holding the guns and shooting at the colonists but I feel that the colonists stimulated this affair. In different accounts of the massacre, it is stated that the colonists taunted the redcoats. Additionally, this protest was the result of the mercantilistic acts British imposed.

As to what happened on the evening of March 5th, 1770, there is a plentiful amount of perspectives that have been studied for centuries. In the decade leading up to the massacre tensions were high, and as it is put by Wheeler and Becker, “the Massachusetts colony became a hotbed of opposition to imperial policy innovations" (81). There was intense strain on the relationship between the British and the American Colonists. More specifically this rising hostility honed in between the Boston residents, and