Kent State University Shooting Essay

The Boston Massacre was a horrible side effect of American Rebellion but at a cost of American blood. The Boston Massacre was a brawl I the street that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a mob of younger men called a “patriot” mob. The young men threw snowballs, rocks, and stick at the armed British Soldiers. Unfortunately several colonists were killed. This led to a campaign by speech writers to instigate the issue of citizenry.

The Boston Massacre took place on March 5th, 1770. This historic event was caused because of an ongoing conflict between the British soldiers and the people of Boston. According to George Hewes account, “Crowds of artisans and laborers joined the elite in protesting British policies, although their differing points of view revealed the divisions within colonial society.” People were upset over the British passing the Towsend Act, which was a surplus of unpopular taxes. The people of Boston also resented the British troops, who were also looking for jobs.

On March 5 1770, a union of colonists gathered at the Customs House where they protested and harassed soldiers standing outside. These colonists were representing The Sons of Liberty, a secret organization aiming to rebel against the British Parliament. There was an abundance of tension between the colonists and Great Britain after new taxes were passed and British troops arrived in Massachusetts to enforce them. After many hours of chanting and protesting a shot was fired; the atrocious event left five men dead. The question society still ponders over 200 years later is what really happened and whose fault was it? The Boston Massacre initiated because of miscommunication; it was not a massacre but a mutual riot.

The Townshend Acts of 1767 were also a critical reason for the colonial actions taken during the Imperial Crisis. These acts placed taxes on goods imported into North America, once again resulting in a boycott. These boycotts caused the colonists to rely on American made goods rather than foreign, allowing the colonists to experience the possibilities of self-sufficiency and furthering the distaste for British rule. The Townshend Acts led to the Boston Massacre of 1770, as British troops fired into a crowd of rioting Bostonians. This event increased the tensions between the colonists and British. After the Townshend Acts were repealed, the Tea Act was enforced, requiring the colonists to pay a tax for tea. This tax was rejected in the colonies because the colonies believed that recognizing the tax would be recognizing Parliament’s authority to tax unlawfully, without consent and representation. The colonists refused the act by dumping imported tea into the Boston Harbor. This infuriated the British, who then implemented the Intolerable Acts. These acts required colonists to house British soldiers in their homes without consent, restricted the colonists’ right to assemble, and allowed governors to appoint councilmen without election. The colonists viewed these acts as major threats to their freedom and further fueled conflict in the Americas.

The Boston Massacre was said to be the event that brought the colonies closer to unite against the British Government and these conflicts between the colonists and the British army were rising because of how the British Government was trying to gain more control over the American colonies while also trying to raise the American taxes. The Massacre was used to encourage colonists to fight harder for their freedom and independence but also was known as a zero hour in the American Revolution. This point had allowed groups like the Groups like the Sons of Liberty to use it to show the corruption of British rule.

In studying the Boston Massacre, there are many views of the cause of the event and the effect it had on American history and the colonies. It is my personal belief that the Boston Massacre was fueled by the abuse and isolation of the British soldiers and the civil disobedience of the colonial people that was substantiated by the feelings of their own lack of freedom. The event was used as propaganda by prominent people such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams to lead the colonies in a revolutionary uprising.

This investigation will assess the significance of the causes of the Boston Massacre in 1770. It will also connect the relationship and perspective of British Troops verses the colonists and will study the effects of the various events that led up to the Massacre. In June 1767, British Parliament permitted the Townshend Acts which taxed import items such as tea, lead, glass, paint, and paper. They also constructed a Board of Custom Commissioners for America to be positioned in Boston. After this, Boston’s citizens rioted against the import taxes by creating anti-import movements in the colonies. The British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and wounded six others. The event was heavily propagandized by commanding patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams who ignited hostility towards the British powers. These events include riots against British taxations such as

In 1770, tension was growing in the British colonies of North America. These tensions were growing due to the aftermath of the Seven Years War. Since Britain, protected the colonies during the Seven Years War, as a result Britain grew heavily in debt. So the British Government blamed the colonist for the war, they created precautions to prevent another war from erupting in the colonies. Some of these precautions causes tensions to rise in the colonies such as the proclamation line of 1763, the British standing army and the Declaratory act. The British also established several taxes, which cause uproar in the colonies such as the stamp act and sugar act, however those acts were appealed in 1766. Consequently, the British also passed the Townshend act, which in turn caused the tensions to rise in the colonies. Due tensions between the colonist and the British, the city Boston the setting of a horrific event occurred, which the colonist used as propaganda to fuel the fight for independence from the British crown. This was the Boston Massacre was a chaotic event which no one could agree on what actually occurred. The Boston Massacre is debated about what actually

While reading chapter six in our textbook, I became most interested in the event of the Boston Massacre. I believe the reason for this was because it is such a large event in history that is spoke about all of the time and I remember hearing about it in school, but I could not remember any of the details. So, the Boston Massacre started due to rising tensions and temperaments between colonists and British soldiers. "On October 1, 1768, the first of 4,000 British soldiers arrived to police the city of Boston" in order to maintain order and prevent uproars from the Townshend Act (Page 207). These soldiers were not only watching colonists every move but also working in Boston, which prevented colonists from attaining work.

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.

The city of Boston, Massachusetts was involved in a lot during the formation of our country, and it held a plethora of events. One of the events in Boston, was the boston Massacre. This event started on March 5th of 1770, when shots were fired by various British soldiers. When this finally came to an end, 5 colonists were deceased. Another event, was the

The Boston Massacre was a very unsettling event that occurred to lead up the the Revolutionary War, and this event was one of the main reasons for a rebellion. “The presence of British troops in the city of Boston was increasingly unwelcome”(Boston Massacre). Since these troops were very unsettling to the colonists, a small group of them decided to throw some rocks at them. To these troops, their response were to open fire at the group of people in front of them, so the colonists would stop bullying them.

PETER WATKINS : Well I think that the shootings at Kent State was certainly the turning point for my decision to not only continue my stay in the U.S, but to try and make an independent film on what was happening there at that time. A first my idea was to make a dramatised reconstruction, just like Culloden, of the Chicago trial, an event that was quite a big at that time. But as soon as I began the casting for the movie and started to meet a number of people whom had already been arrested for protesting the Vietnam War. It became obvious to me that their stories and experiences were even more vivid and relevant than a word for word filming of the Chicago trial.

The Boston Massacre was an encounter on March 5, 1770, that was five years before the American Revolution between British troops and a group of citizens of Boston that were then in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. British troops were quartered in the city to discourage demonstrations. As a result of constant harassment by the citizens, a squad of British soldiers that had been struck by snow and ice balls with rocks inside thrown during a demonstration, fired into the crowd, killing five men. The eight soldiers and their commanding officer were tried for murder and were defended by John Adams, later president of the United States, and Josiah Quincy. Two of the soldiers were declared guilty of manslaughter, and the others, including the officer, were acquitted. The incident was skillfully exploited by the American patriot Samuel Adams to create anti-British sentiment in the colonies. After the incident the patriots of Massachusetts Bay were more and more

For more than a decade before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, tensions had been arising between colonists and British authorities. The government tried to raise revenue by taxing the colonies which caused a protest among the colonists. They resented their lack of representation in parliament and demanded same rights as other British subjects. This led to violence in 1770 and was known as the Boston Massacre.