The British Side of the Boston Massacre
Mykenzie Cotiaux
“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
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While the British were in the streets of Boston the colonists decided to protest the king. The colonists were protesting that the taxes that the kind had on the people were unfair. The colonists started with using verbal abuse, but eventually they started throwing things and beating the soldiers. The colonists were saying things like “Fire you bloody lobsters” and throwing things such as snowballs, pebbles, rocks, sticks basically anything they could find. Since the colonists were threatening the British they had a reason to fire. A report made shows that one colonist was physically beating one of the British guards. This colonist had no charges filed against him, but the British soldier was the one who fired the first shot. The British was put in jail for using self defense against the …show more content…
The Boston massacre was played out to be such a big thing, although it was a misunderstanding. It was the colonists who were asking for there to be trouble. If the colonists were not throwing things and beating the British then the gun would have never gone off. The colonists were protesting against someone who was not doing anything wrong. Why were the colonists protesting something that we still have today? Before the colonists were threatening the British the British was just doing their jobs. The colonists were the ones threatening the British so why were the British put in jail for it? In conclusion, 8 British soldiers were arrested for using self defense. If the colonists were not protesting no shots would have been fired so the Boston massacre would have never happened, in the end the Boston massacre was just propaganda towards the
The boston massacre took place on march 5 1770 of king street massachusetts but the question remains who ordered the soldiers to fire. The boston massacre was caused by the colonists because the colonists were throwing things at the colonists and being rude to them. my second reason is that the soldiers were being pressurized by the colonists to their breaking point. My first reason is that the colonists were asked to leave the king's highway but did not and that just created more problems making more pressure on the soldiers. The colonists were also throwing things at the soldiers.
The Boston massacre was a street fight, that killed five colonists in front of the old state house.””British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend
On March 5, 1770, five English colonists were killed in Boston, Massachusetts, by British soldiers. This day will forever be known as the Boston Massacre. It all started with a British sentry who was stationed in Boston. The sentry faced verbal harassment from colonists in the town. Eventually, the group grew larger, and the British sentry called in eight additional soldiers for backup. The large mob of colonists began to physically attack the colonists with clubs and other weapons, leading to the British soldiers to fire on the colonists. The colonists were to blame for the events that occurred on March 5, 1770, because they verbally tormented the British, threatened them with weapons and largely outnumbered the British soldiers.
Much controversy surrounds the Boston Massacre. No one is sure why or what caused the soldiers to fire into the crowd. Some people testified that they only saw a mob of people, then the firing of guns. Others say the British fired without provocation. Multiple testimonies have said that they heard Captain Thomas Preston give the order to fire. There are some people who said they
The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5th, 1770. It was a street fight between American colonists and British soldiers. American colonists were outraged about the Townshend Acts of 1767, which was an act that allowed the British to tax the Americans on paper, led, and tea. The British wanted to keep a tight control over the Americans, so they passed the Quartering Act, which stated that American colonists had to house British soldiers. Around two hundred colonists surrounded the British soldiers before the fight occurred. After taunting from the colonists, a British soldier fired into the crowd. An African American sailor, named Crispus Attackus, was killed first. Samuel Gray, James Cauldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr were shot and died later. The Revolution of armed rebellion rose throughout colonies, afterwards.
Was the Boston Massacre used as propaganda after event took place? The Massacre occurred in 1770 on the night of March 5. The event resulted in the British army shooting and killing 5 men while under attack by a so called “mob”. The shootings took place right outside of The Old State House. Eight shooters were arrested, but soon after their trials it came down to only two of the six to be convicted of manslaughter. This led to colonial leaders like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams publicizing the event. The publicity was used to change the way colonists felt about the British authorities and in particular was used to help unite the colonies and spread the cause of Independance. As a result of the Boston Massacre, the colonists were able to use
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
They then began to tar and feather British tax collectors and acted out in other violent matters. Adams knew the only way to prevail over Britain taxes was to act out peacefully and with fairness. He showed these traits in the Boston Massacre Trials. The Boston Massacre is an event that occurred on March 5, 1770. On this night colonist began throwing snowballs at British soldiers and provoking them. Scared and confused the British soldiers shot back, these shots are known as the first shots in the American Revolution. Propaganda was used to show the colonist were innocent bystanders and the British started randomly shooting at them. The soldiers were set up to go into an unfair trial based on this propaganda. Adams knew the soldiers were not entirely guilty and when approached by a British soldier to defend them in trial he agreed. By defending the British, Adams hoped to show the colonist we must not act out in violence. The British soldiers were ruled guilty but had less severe consequences thanks to
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
The Boston Massacre was the end result of many factors that had been building up in the colonies since the French and Indian War. England was deeply in debt and expected the colonies to share their burden. The colonies being forced to pay the taxes that had been avoided for a long time. The British tax collectors never had forced everyone to pay taxes simply because England didn’t need the money. England was making money off of the colonies trade goods so they did not absolutely need to collect the tax money from the colonists. Also, for about 140 years Britain passed laws of Salutary Neglect allowing colonists to run their own government. By letting the colonists have their own forms of government and then taking away their freedoms to
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
On March 5, 1770 a mob of colonists armed with clubs surrounded the customs house in Boston where the kings money was kept. The mob surrounded the guard posted there and threatened his life so the red coats were called in, to disperse the mob and the defend the customs house. The colonists started to attack the redcoats tasked with defending the customs house, Which lead to shots being fired by the soldiers. In document A by Paul Revere it was titled “The Bloody Massacre”. In my opinion that was far from the truth, the Boston Massacre of 1770 was not a massacre because the colonists had weapons and attacked the British troops first. Also there was a every low loss of life which goes against the definition of a massacre, a massacre (insert massacre
The first reason I believe the Boston Massacre is because of Paul Revere's painting. After studying his painting, I would say it is very inaccurate. Not only was Crispus Attucks not shown as an African American, but Paul Revere shows innocence to the crowd of colonists. It was said that colonists had started by throwing snowballs, but snow is also not located anywhere on the painting. The saying that the Boston Massacre must've started after nine o'clock in the evening may be a false statement too because there is a patch of blue sky showing. I believe the Boston Massacre may actually have started in the morning as the moon can still be up, even during light. Paul Revere's painting was basically an
I am writing to express my opinion about the events that occurred March 5, 1770 in Boston. I feel very strongly that the blame rests solely on the nine British soldiers that fought in the massacre. These soldiers were much to harsh to the colonists were involved in this fight, and had no right to fire a gun at these innocent colonists trying to stand up for their rights of privacy, as well as just rights in general. I believe that the world should know what really happened on March 5, 1770 in the streets of Boston. I hope that you should continue reading to find out more.
After the first gunshot had hit nobody shot right away, it was after that the gunshots had been made by the soldiers. It took place in the year of 1770 of March 5 and killed 5 people total. I also think that the 5 people that were killed, who were those people's names and were they important? The Boston Massacre was called that because they wanted to make it a propaganda and some people wanted to make a big deal out of it. A propaganda is basically a rumor that spreads and becomes known. I think that when they called it a propaganda and wanted to spread the news, everyone around must have gotten to know it quickly because they wanted to make it a big thing. There were also two separate trials that lasted two days. The trials were about both, the soldiers and James Preston being accused of murder or they were being questioned about what had happened during the massacre. One was for the soldiers and the other for James Preston, a captain for the British soldiers. In the trials, how people were there in each trial? The Boston Massacre was took place east of The Old State House. The Old State House was the Britain Headquarters where the taxes went after the trade goods were paid and gathered. They chose to protest there, because it was the Britain headquarters. The Britain Headquarters were probably very important for them to have the massacre there. The Old State Town House was North East of