The Boston Massacre: The Boston Massacre

After analyzing the video about the Boston Massacre, what it should be called depends all on which side you took. Patriots would have took this as a massacre because, not only would it blame the British, but their people were also considered "slaughtered". Thus, to the Patriots, this would be considered a massacre. However, for the Loyalists and British, this would be considered a riot. A crowd of colonists threw snowballs, stones, oyster shells, and even wood at British soldiers. This was basically a disturbance of peace, or a riot. The soldiers had the right of defending themselves, so I do understand the reasons for shooting, but killing wasn't necessary. In the end however, in my opinion, without being biased to any sides, the Boston Massacre should be considered a riot.

The British soldiers were anything but loved by the American colonists in the 1770s. They maliciously planned an attack on the soldiers because of their hate. Many townspeople gathered together in effort to strike against the British presence. The men were just doing their job trying to keep order in Boston, but the people still taunted them. The soldiers were being tried for murder because they fired at the people, but those charges should not have existed. The crowd initially attacked the soldiers, not the other way around. It was also dark out so the soldiers did not know of the number of colonist attackers. The soldiers heard the word fire coming from the crowd, confusing the voices with Captain Preston’s. The incident referred to as the

William Wyatt and Captain Thomas Preston had very different accounts on what happened at the Boston Massacre. Wyatt said that he was in Boston, when he heard the bells ring, which usually indicated that there is a fire. He ran up too the Town-house, where he saw soldiers and their officer, who was telling them to load their guns and then proceeded to tell the soldiers to fire. When they did not fire, he told them to fire again, until someone did and after everyone fired and killed townspeople, the officer yelled "Damn ye, rascals, what did ye fire for?" Wyatt also mentioned that the towns people did not throw anything at the soldiers.

On the evening of March 5, 1770, with a foot of snow on the ground, groups of Bostonians gathered around the Custom House on King Street. Some had buckets of water, after responding to a fire alarm. Others had clubs to defend themselves or perhaps to threaten the despised “lobsterbacks.” Private Hugh White was, in fact, being threatened by several wigmakers’ apprentices (Aron 24). When Captain Thomas Preston heard of Private White’s situation, he came with seven other soldiers to help. Words escalated into snowballs and stones, and the soldiers began to fight back with the butts of their guns. The crowd of Bostonians was growing and now numbered about 100 (24). Then, a huge chunk of ice came flying in from the mob and knocked

Similar to the way that the colonial and British perspectives greatly varied for the Boston Massacre, their opinions are once again vastly different for the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In this event as well, both parties attempt to place the blame on the other which is not unusual due the nature of the sources. However, this highlights the large amount of bias evident in all of the accounts. For the colonial perspective, there are two statements, each from a member of a colonial militia that fought during the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Both of these sources place the blame on the British soldiers and claim that the British fired first, killing several colonists. One account, from the Battle of North Bridge, claims that the colonists were ordered to hold their fire and that they didn’t fire until the British opened fire upon them. The other account, from soldier who fought during the skirmish at the Lexington Green, states that the colonists did not even get a single shot off, at least not before the soldier whose account this is was wounded. This source also claims that the British commanding officers were yelling at and insulting the colonists as their ranks closed on the milita. Both these sources are very similar to the colonial perspectives of the Boston Massacre because they all place the blame on the British soldiers and attempt to make themselves appear as the victims.

Before the Boston Massacre even occurred, tensions were high in the city of Boston between the Bostonians and the British. At this time people were just

Before America was America people fought a war where theoretically they should not have won. After the war ended, they came out victors, but at the price of losing thousands of men. “We are fallen into the most unhappy times, when even innocence itself is nowhere safe!” (Boston Gazette, February 1770). This excerpt shows that the people in the colonies were angry and wanted change. There was sufficient cause for the American colonists to take up arms and rebel against the British government because people have the right to privacy, and Britain was not giving it to them.

To deeply understand that what is Boston Massacre is all about, it is necessary to critically analyze the causes and effects of the incident of Boston Massacre. Boston Massacre is considered as one of the decisive incidents in the history of America. The act of Boston Massacre happened on March 5, 1770. This incident was known as the act of massacre because it causes the brutal killing of five American men due to the fight between British soldiers and the American

The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5th, 1770 whenever a group of American colonists who called themselves ‘The Protestors’ started an uprising at the Customs House. The Protestors instigated this Massacre by having taunted the British soldiers until one Protestor threw a snowball and hit Private Hugh Montgomery. Once he was hit he opened fire on the unarmed colonists and his fellow soldiers followed in his malicious shoes. In all, they killed five colonists, Crispius Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell, and left 3 colonists injured. The trial for the soldiers ended in December of 1770 where they were all found guilty of manslaughter and their punishment was to have their thumbs branded with an ‘M’ for murderer. This massacre made many people consider the thought of freedom and some voiced this thought. The Sons of Liberty advertised this massacre as a doorway to battle for American Liberty ("The Boston Massacre.").

The Boston Massacre was an important event in U.S. history, that lead to the American

On the night of March 5, 1770, colonists went to the Boston Customs House. They were angered from all the laws, for example, the Quartering Act, Stamp Act, and the Townshend Act. The colonists took snowballs with oyster shells and threw them at the soldiers. The soldiers panicked and fired at the colonists, 5 civilians laid died and the colonist protested the massacre and the soldiers were arrested and branded. Personally, the soldiers are to blame for the Boston Massacre because the colonists were treated unfairly, the fight wasn’t fair and the Private Montgomery fired first.

The Boston Massacre was a street fight between a Patriot mob, and the British soldiers. On that day a British soldier was standing guard and had gotten into a fight with a colonist. A group of colonists was talking about the British and was mad about all the taxes. The colonists were walking when they came across a british soldier. The colonists were mad at the british, so they started to mess with the soldier. The colonists started to call the soldier names and started to throw snowballs, stones, and sticks at the soldier. The soldier called more british soldiers over, and the colonists got even angrier. One of the other soldiers shot the colonists and the other men heard the shot and thought they were commanded to shoot. The soldiers shot into the crowd and ended up with 5 dead colonists. The soldiers went to trial and some people argued that the soldiers were acting in self defense while others argued that it was murder. The troops were found not guilty in the end. The Boston Massacre was a awful situation because 5 colonists ended up being killed. The colonists grew even more angry, the British were requiring them to pay more, and then the British kill 5 of their own. The colonists were fed up, and had to do something about the British and their rules over America, which lead to the Boston Tea

The boston massacre started by the collisions were throwing snowballs and sticks at the british soldier thats was doing his job. And he told them to get away from him and the house he was guarding and they did not and the kept throwing snowball at him and then a another soldier came out to help he cause he heard the colonist yelling at the soldier and he told them to get back and thing got out of hand and the solder bit the colonist in the face with the back of his gun and then it got worn more british soldier came out and start to shoot the collisions cause they could

I believe the Boston Massacre, the terrible instance where riot-provoking colonists were shot by British soldiers, is certainly not one sided- but the British deserve to take the blame. We all think we understand the gruesome events that occurred on March 5th, but do we really know the true horrors of that night? I have read many different testimonies, and viewpoints attempting to escape concluding an opinion that was influenced by bias so that I could provide an intelligent article for the readers of this newsletter. However with this issue, it is incredibly difficult to find a single piece of information that contains absolutely no traces of prejudice towards one side. All articles regarding the viewpoints of Bostonians are almost always

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.