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On March 5, 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts, a fight took place between the British soldiers and the colonists. The started all because of the Quartering Act. The colonists were ordered by King George III to house British soldiers when they were in the colonies. The colonists were, of course, unhappy about this, so they made sure the British felt unwelcome in America. On this fateful day in March, a group of about 30-40 colonists gathered in the town square. The colonists had provoked the British soldiers and that lead to what is now today as the ‘Boston Massacre’. A massacre is the purposeful killing of a group of people, which is more than one person, who are defenseless and not attacking. Did a massacre truly take place on March 5 of 1770; some sources say yes and some say otherwise. Based in the information that was gathered, a massacre did not take place on March 5, 1770 in Boston because both the colonists and the British were armed and attacking was an act self defense, on the British’s behalf. …show more content…
In John Bufford's depiction of the Boston massacre, both the colonies and the British were illustrated with weapons. Also, in British Captain Thomas Preston’s letter, the text reads, “On this general attack was made… by a great number of heavy clubs and snowballs being thrown at them [the soldiers] … ” This evidence supports my claim because the colonists being depicted with weapons explicitly shows that they were armed. Captain Thomas Preston also said they had heavy clubs and snowballs. Since a massacre is an attack on defenseless people, what is know to be the Boston Massacre, could not have been a

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