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The Boston Massacre: Self-Defense Or Self Defense?

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he infamous street fight that took place in Boston, Massachusetts is referred to as The Boston Massacre. The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. The riot started when a few young boys began to throw stones and rocks at British soldiers who were guarding the Customs House. The crowd around the boys started to grow larger and larger, and then people from the crowd begun to join the boys, throwing ice at the soldiers and taunting them. The soldiers then fired, killing five colonists. I believe that this event is best classified as self-defense. Self-defense is defined as the defense of one's person or interests, especially through the use of physical force, which is permitted in certain cases as an answer to a charge of violent crime.
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The evidence, from the 7 eyewitnesses, support that the colonists were the aggressors during the fateful evening of March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre. Some cited evidence proves it. Number one, “I saw the people throw snowballs at the soldiers and saw a stick 3 feet long strike a soldier upon the right” (Theodore Bliss). In other terms they were assaulting the soldiers with pieces of snow or ice at them, afterward they hit one of them with a 3 foot club. This shows that the soldiers didn’t shoot to murder, they shot in self-defense.

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The acts are named after Charles Townshend who proposed the program. The Boston Massacre was a street fight which happened on March 5, 1770. It was between a “Patriot” mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British Soldiers. A lot of colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writer to rouse theory

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The Boston Massacre occurred in 1780, six colonists were shot and killed by British Soldiers. Adams successfully defended these soldiers in court, although it was the unpopular view of the colonists. In 1774 Adams was chosen as a delegate to attend the First Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. During this meeting Adams played a leading role in convincing the congress to strive to declare independence. After this first meeting of congress Adams was elected once again to participate in the Second Continental Congress in 1775.

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The Boston Massacre was not called ‘The Boston Massacre’ at first. The original name, was in fact the ‘State Street Massacre’. Another name they had called it was the ‘Bloody Massacre on King Street,’ and Paul Revere was the one who had originally called it the ‘Bloody Massacre on King Street.’ Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott all played a major role in The Boston Massacre. Paul Revere went down in History as the one to ride his horse around the Boston and warn people the British were coming.

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The Boston massacre Although many historian believe the the Boston Massacre was a murder it is clear that it is an act of self-defense. First, the situation was self-defense because Preston was trying to get the sentry to safety when they got surrounded by armed and drunken citizens. The soldiers were defending themselves because they were unable to escape with their backs against the custom house and faced an angry mob. Secondly, the solders’ fire was eight to six seconds between them. this shows that the solders fired on there own accord because usually they all fire at the same time when following orders.

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Although many historians believe that the Boston Massacre was an act of murder, it is clear that the incident was self-defense. First, On March 5, 1771, a group of colonists gathered and started taunting a soldier in front of the Custom House. Quickly more colonists gathered around the soldier. Different sources say that there were anywhere from 70-200 men that were there that night. According to Unsolved History: The Boston Massacre, Captain Preston got a group of soldiers to go out and get the soldier.

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Boston Massachusetts: On March 5th, 1770. An out breaking riot formed on Kings Street in Boston; ironically it formed in front of the Customs House. This riot turned bad when Hugh White called for nine other men to come and support him and crackling gunshots fired off into the snowy night. When the smoke cleared the colonists and the British soldiers stood amazed at the five lifeless bodies piled up on the cobblestone street.

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This event was between the Colonist and the English Soldiers. What happened during this event was a streetfight between the soldiers and the colonist and three people died that day and two died later. The ones who died in that event were Crispus Attucks, an African American, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr. This event occur in Boston. This happened on March 5,1770.

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Boston Massacre On march 5, 1700 the boston massacre happened but there were two sides to the story. One side of the story the red coats attacked the colonists and killed them. On the other side they were protecting themselves against the crowd of colonists. Paul Revere publish a paper showing what had happened.he lied at some part to get the red coats kicked out of town. Really it was a gravity because the red coats were attacked and slammed and harassed, but still they killed people and the ones that shot pey were persecuted.

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The Boston Massacre was self-defense because according to history from books on March 5,1770 groups of colonist decided to riot and surround the British soldiers, Throwing things at the soldiers and taunting them to fire. My first argument is Crispus Attucks took a cordwood stick and swung it at one of the soldiers who protected him from the blow. Attucks was yelling" Kill the dogs"! " Knock them over!" This is self-defense because Crispus Attucks struck the soldier first, and once the soldier was hit he could act back upon the hit and could do anything to protect himself from a contact

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There is an overall distinguishing difference between John Hancock’s “Boston Massacre Oration”, and John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. In his oration Hancock establishes a call to action in the development of the American identity, while Dickinson offers a critique of the colonists in their wishes to revolt against taxation while simultaneously expressing the inequality that exists among the colonies. Hancock consistently reinforces the idea of a unified nation such as when he says “let all America join in one common prayer”. Rather than criticizing the brutal actions that occurred on the night of March 5, 1770, he uses the actions to encourage unity and promote a pursuit for liberty.

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The Boston Massacre is an event most Americans and British students learn about over the course of their education. In America, we learn that British soldiers fired upon innocent civilians, although this may not have been the case. British historians have referred to the Boston Massacre as the "Incident on King Street". After looking over the "Captain Thomas Preston 's Account of the Boston Massacre", as well as "Boston Massacre Trial Depositions" I believe that American historians should refer to the "Boston Massacre" as the "Incident on King Street". The definition of a massacre refers to an unnecessary and random killing of a large number of individuals.

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The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a “patriot”. They were throwing sticks, snowballs, and trash at a group of British troops. The loyalists got very annoyed with the patriots so they shot into the mob killing five. The riot began when around 50 colonists attacked a British sentinel. A British officer called in for additional troops

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There were many disagreements and because of those, many events were the cause of the American Revolution. These events included bloodshed by others, peoples rights weren’t enforced, individuals didn’t receive freedom, and our country was just not yet whole. Despite of the causes of why the road to Revolution took place there were effects afterwards. When American Revolution was over with the The Declaration of Independence came into place, treaties were signed, and the Bill of Rights. Now these effects/events were amazing, it helped our country tremendously.

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625 Words | 3 Pages

The Boston Massacre took place on March 5th, 1770. During the Boston Massacre the colonies decided to take action and attack a group of british soldiers. This was the start of the protest as the British were becoming aware of the american colonists act of interrogation. Later on on December 16th, 1773 the Boston Tea party had occurred. The American colonist were not pleased to find out that they were only allowed to buy tea from the british.

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