What Happened At The Boston Massacre

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

The third and most obvious reason the British are to blame for the massacre is that the British soldiers fired into the crowd. When Hugh Montgomery was knocked down by a chunk of ice, he stood up and fired into the crowd (Aron 24). The other soldiers soon fired as well. The gunfire killed five people. Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, and James Caldwell died at the scene. Samuel Maverick died a few hours later, while Patrick Carr survived for nine days before dying of his wounds (Olson). Samuel Gray was killed by a single ball entering his head, Crispus Attucks was killed by two balls entering his chest, and James Caldwell was killed by two balls entering his back (“Boston”). Benjamin Frizell, who was standing near the west corner of the Custom House before and at the time of the gun discharges, declared that the first discharge was of only one gun, the second discharge was of two guns, the third discharge was of three guns, immediately followed by the fourth and final discharge of five guns (“Boston”). He also declared that of the final discharge, two were from soldiers on the ground on Preston’s right side, but three discharges came from the balcony, or the chamber window, as the flashes appeared on the left side of Preston, and higher than the flashes of the other two discharges. This information shows that at least three soldiers were on the balcony and carefully took aim and

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.

The textbook and the diary entry are both similar on how the massacre began, but the textbook states that the soldiers came to assist White, ending in the soldier being surrounded by the crowd and one of the soldiers being knocked down. The soldier that was knocked down, got up and fired his musket according to the textbook, but the diary entry stated that Captain Preston commanded the soldiers to fire. The textbook does not state anything about the soldiers being immediately removed, but states that the redcoats left for Canada.

The soldiers lined up, facing the crowd to try and dissolve the problem but the people were not backing down. Bostonians continued to taut the soldiers, yelling at them to fire their weapons. Not long after, shots were fired killing five Bostonians and wounding six others. The big question still unanswered today is whether or not Captain Preston yelled for the soldiers to fire or not.

Due to the British tightening their control over the colonies to pay off the huge debt after the French and Indian War, patriots rebelled and started a revolution that would lead to great things. These were colonists who believed that the right to govern themselves belonged to the colonies. Britain had recently gotten into a war in the Americas against France and the Native Americans. Although they won and expanded their American empire, the debt they were in was just about up to their necks. To help solve this problem, they took more control over the colonies. Before the Proclamation of 1763, Britain did not pay much attention to the colonies. However Prime Minister George Grenville needed help to pay off the debt, and the British people were already paying taxes on several of their

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.

The royal troops first started to appear in October 1768 in Massachusetts, where they enforced a heavy tax burden implemented by the Townshend Acts. This cause a great deal of tension between them and the American colonies shortly after. two groups ended up being formed, one made up of people of Boston, and another of those who were trying to enforce the King’s ruling. The British custom officials would be harassed for trying to enforce the Townshend Acts though, and numerous confrontations between the soldiers and people would be the end result of this.

During the Boston Massacre, a mob of colonists in Boston harassed the British soldiers. Captain Thomas Preston wrote,” On this is a general attack was made on the men by a great number of heavy clubs and snowballs being thrown at them…” During the riot, the British troops shot 5 colonists from the mob. The shots, however, were fired without their Captain’s demand. In Captain Thomas Preston’s report he admitted that he did not order the men to fire. He wrote, “ This might be the case as many of the mob called out fired, fire, but i assured the men that i gave no such order; that my words were, don’t fire, stop your firing.” To this day, no one knew who called out “fire”. At last, the colonists called a town meeting to demand the removal of British troops and even argued a trial for the incident of the shots. The judges agreed to put the soldiers on trial while the colonists were the one who started

This article has tons of information about what happened that day. It is a very useful source because his words and feelings were common with his neighbors who were angry at the troops too. Through his voice, one can hear the cries and complaints of the townspeople of Boston. However, this is only one side of the story and putting all the faults on the British troops for firing doesn’t seem very convincing.

Boston Massacre The day of 5, March 1770 have its immense significance in the history of America. It is remembered as the day of the killing of five heroes of the revolutionary process of America. It is the day of Boston Massacre. It has its strong implications in the nation’s history (Sanchez).

There were two separate trials, one for Captain Preston and one for the soldiers. The first one started about one month after the massacre, the second one started on November 27, 1770.

On the other hand, a British perspective is given by a letter of Captain Thomas Preston, who wrote it a week after the incident. He depicts his own version of the event on March 5th and tries to defend himself. Preston starts out by presenting his sad situation in which he needs help and has nothing to support himself. Then, he starts to describe the relationships between soldiers and citizens and the main reasons of the event on the night of March 5th. Contrary to the article of Boston Gazette, Thomas Preston states that Boston citizens were constantly provoking and abusing British soldiers. Thus, there were many disputes that happened between the Townspeople and the Soldiery in Boston before March 5th. Furthermore, the captain states that utter hatred of Boston citizens to British soldiers was increasing daily and they were privately planning for general attacks. According to Preston, one of these plans was realized on Monday night, when two soldiers were attacked by the party of inhabitants. In order to provoke other citizens of Boston to riot, this party broke into two

“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

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.