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The Colonists: The Boston Massacre

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The Colonists

Since 1765, the people of Boston had been having protests against the british taxing them. First against the Stamp Acts, then in 1767 against the Townshend Acts. Many citizens believed that Britain did not have the right to tax them because they did not have their representatives in Parliament. Only the Massachusetts Assembly, whose members were elected every year, had the right to put taxes on the colonies. The day is March 5, 1770 right outside the Customs House, the day the Boston Massacre occurred.

A colonist walked over to a sober soldier had a few words with him. The soldier hit him randomly with the painful butt of his hard wood and metal gun. The colonist walked over to the other colonists and explained what happened …show more content…
It was believed to be 9 soldiers and it is not known how many colonists there were but it was recorded to be about 50. A ropemaker Samuel Gray, a mariner named James Caldwell and well known black sailor Crispus Attucks all died immediately. Later, Samuel Maverick who got shot in the abdomen, and Patrick Carr died later of their wounds. The news spread like wildfire because Paul Revere made a paper and a legendary picture about the boston massacre. Samuel Adams used the massacre to rile up the colonists against the British and to gain more recruits for the Sons of Liberty. John Adams defended successfully; all but two of the british were acquitted of murder. They were actually convicted for manslaughter mostly because the jury was filled with almost all loyalists unjustly by John Adams. Now, to remember there is a star in the middle of the square where they fought to represent the five colonists dead by the five pronged …show more content…
But in later days it was found out by researchers that the soldier did pay the master for his services. The apprentice then taunted the troop man who with a strong reason hit the man with butt of his gun. The man walked over acting total innocence and said that for no reason the soldier hit him. All the colonists formed a raging mob which rose up to attack him.the colonists were very vicious it was a torture getting hit with snowballs and threatened by people with torches and clubs. One of the alert british officers Captain Thomas Preston called for more troops to calm down the riot that was starting. When the other soldiers came one of the colonist slammed his club on too a reinforcement troop. Who tried to frighten the colonists away by shooting into the crowd. Right after the shot, mayhem broke

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