ipl-logo

Why Did The Boston Massacre Happen

538 Words3 Pages

The Boston Massacre was an accident in the beginning, but it continued to go on until it reached an extent where it could be an accident no longer. The real question is when did this accident start, and when did it get too far? Some say it should have never happened. others say it was the start of the revolution.

Captain Thomas Preston was a British officer stationed in Massachusetts staying in a home with other soldiers under the Quartering Act. They were banging on things with clubs yelling “Fire if you dare”. Yelling, screaming throwing snowballs, ice, coming at his soldiers with stick, buckets, clubs, and anything that they could get their hands on. His men would need to fire under his call, one man got hit by stick wobble to and side and his gun went off. Immediately after 4 of the men heard the crowd shouting fire and …show more content…

Newton Prince was a African American businessman. Men came to his house yelling “fire, fire”, he asked if it was a house on fire, they said no something even better. Newton went out to the massacre and met people that had “clubs, buckets, bags,snowballs,and sticks”. A lot of people were yelling “fire” and so he could see how it could be confusing for actual command. There are also many sticks that we 're hitting the bayonet and most of them could have been set off because of that. The soldiers may have felt threatened but the only thing that was really coming at them with snowballs. Newton makes a good point about how many sticks hit bayonet and yelling of fire could have think confusing but in the end they were only really being hit with snowballs and sticks.

Yes there was proof of weapons other than snowballs but they were not in use. The Boston Massacre was very chaotic people yelling fire, running around, protesting and all out causing confusion and chaos. The only thing that was really threatening the soldiers or snowballs. So there was really no reason for the british to fire, starting the Rebellion and American

Show More
Related
834 Words | 4 Pages

Fire, damn you! Suddenly the line of British muskets exploded to flame…” Then he Battle of concord on page 278 it stated, “Suddenly there was a burst of fire, and it was not the rebel’s nit was Laurie’s’ men… The rebels fired a second time with more precision still, but then all order was gone, the scene engulfed in vast fog, shouts and screams blending with hard pops and chatter of the muskets. Too many still moving away, pursued by their own shock, the awful horror of the unexpected, leaving their own dead and wounded behind.”

Read More
267 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
641 Words | 3 Pages

“FIRE, FIRE, DAMN YOU, FIRE! I DARE YOU!” yelled the colonists on the street as they threw snowballs, rocks, shells and clubs at the British soldiers. This was the beginning of what was called the Boston Massacre, it occurred on the night of March 5th, 1770. On this night, five men and boys were killed because of the confusion between the soldiers and the colonists.

Read More
1634 Words | 7 Pages

General Howe stated “It took them a night to build that yet it would of taken my men a month to build it”. He realized that the patriots were desperate to build such a fortification and they must of been running out of ammunition and troops. The British troops with fixed bayonets attacked the hill and had to retreat back to the bottom of the hill. The British troops regrouped after the retreat and charged two more times up the hill. The patriots began to run low on ammunition and some began to retreat from the hill.

Read More
498 Words | 2 Pages

Was the Boston Massacre an accident, people say it was, people say it wasn't. Till what I´ve heard the Boston Massacre is not an accident because according to the articles many witnesses were there to experience it such as Benjamin Burdick he had a testimony of the Boston massacre that he said in court. Another guy that was there to witness the horrible traject was Nutent Prince both of them saw what happened. Nutent Prince supports either side because it says in source D that he saw snow balls, clubs, buckets, that the colonist had to defend themselves. Also the testimony of Thomas Preston who was the captain of the british soldiers, said i source B that many of the civilians were yelling saying ¨Come on rascals, your bloody backs, you lobster scoundrels, fire if you dare...dam you…

Read More
318 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

Passage two has more details than passage one. In passage two said how the young men were rude and ended up with multiple people throwing ice and snowballs at the soldiers. Passage 2 states “The wrongs and insults, which the people had been suffering for many months, now rekindled them into rage. They threw snow-balls and lumps of ice

Read More
1133 Words | 5 Pages

Within the night of October 2nd, the British let open a wave of fire to cover up for the movements of their calvary by the infantry men because they were trying to forge for food. This quickly escalated to them losing 50 men. On October 14th, Washington decided launch an attack on the British with the French following 30 minutes later, this was the bombardment. That night at around 6:30pm gunfire was heard symbolizing the start of the attack. Some movements looked as if there was an attack on Yorktown itself, which freaked the British out.

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

The Boston Massacre is one of America’s most memorable moments in history. The Tragedy of March 5th was a leading event that soon stimulated its significance toward the American Revolution. The debate of who to blame for the occurrence of the massacre is still ongoing, and like most debates there are two different sides to the argument. Doug Linder, phenomenally explains the events that led to the massacre in his article “The Boston Massacre Trails: An Account”, in which he analyzes all facts and aspects that occurred during the trial to the point where he explores who is to blame for the horrendous event on the night of march 5th. In the article, Linder is trying to explain that through all the pain and death during that dreadful night, the

Read More
160 Words | 1 Pages

The Boston Massacre was an “incident” that took place on march 5, 1770. On March 5, 1770 the colonists began taunting the British soldiers, this group of colonists called themselves patriots. They were protesting the occupation of their city by british troops that were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by the British Parliament. The patriots started to riot so, Thomas Preston (the commander) ordered his to straighten their bayonets and join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the guards.

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
558 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
1160 Words | 5 Pages

It is now known as “The Boston Massacre”. Later that day twelve soldiers would be arrested. Despite the fact that twelve were arrested four were “acquitted” or released because they were accused of shooting from inside the building, but it was never proven. John Adams and Josiah Quincy, both defended the soldiers and Captain Thomas Preston the commanding officer while they were on trial. The trial for the eight soldiers started on November 27, 1770, and ended on December 5, 1770.

Read More
685 Words | 3 Pages

They also didn 't have previous intentions of going against the colonists. They were voyaging over to Lexington, and got

Read More
764 Words | 4 Pages

If the following events didn’t take place we wouldn’t have America. In my opinion the Boston Massacre was one of the very main causes to why the Road to Revolution took place. The reason I believe this was an important cause because it was, “ the first episode which resulted in the loss of life.” It is stated that, “Four Bostonians were killed when Redcoats fired into an angry mob.”

Read More

More about Why Did The Boston Massacre Happen

Related Topics

Open Document