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Captain Preston’s Trial Accounts

Decent Essays
Since the 1960s, considerable disagreements between North American colonists and British soldiers derived in the so called “Boston Massacre” because of imposed laws by the British Empire into the colonies. After this conflict that took place on March 5, 1770, Captain Thomas Preston was charged with murder. The event occurred as a response of a series of violent encounters between the two groups. Curiously, Capt. Preston trial was delayed until October 24 in order to calm down witnesses’ exasperations. However, the witnesses who declared in the trial gave controversial and questionable testimonies; as a result, it creates indeterminate conditions to make a valid verdict. Among the allegations, Capt. Presto stood between the infuriated town and soldiers; for that reason, it was not clear if the order to shoot was given and if it was, the order came from behind the soldiers. After considering all declarations there were not sufficient evidences to condemn Capt. Presto because British soldiers acted in self-defense. Therefore, my decision for the case is that Capt. Preston was not guilty of giving the order to fire.
Several conflicts between the colonist and soldiers ended in the Boston Massacre which resulted as a response to some laws imposed in the colonies from the British Empire. Examples of these laws were: the stamp act in perpetuity, which was repelled after colonists’ protests; the Townshend Revenue Act, which add new taxes to goods like sugar, tea, glass, etc.; and
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