Boston Massacre Pros And Cons

Imagine you were one of the British guards on March 5, 1770 (the Boston Massacre), and now you are in a courtroom wondering if the jury will find you guilty for murder. This may have been how these British guards actually felt. However, I believe that the British guards shot colonials on March 5, 1770 because they felt as though their life was in danger. As you will see, while there are many different accounts of the event, the guards may have been provoked by the mob. First off, as said in General Thomas Gage’s letter to his superior, it says that the crowd attacked the British guard with “some throwing bricks, stones, pieces of ice, and snowballs at them.” It also says that the crowd provoked them by, “calling out to them to fire if they dared…” (Gage’s letter). Additionally, it says that the crowd was, “provoking them to it by the most vulgar language” (Gage’s letter). This all shows that the crowd was indeed provoking the British guards to fire. The letter states that, “Captain Preston stood

Preston could hear Palmes saying, ‘That instant… I saw something resembling Snow or Ice strike the Grenadier on the Captain’s right hand… He [the Grenadier] fired the first Gun. After the Gun went off I heard the word ‘fire!’ The Captain and I stood in front about half between the breech and muzzle of the Guns. I don’t know who gave the word to fire.’” It also says that, “Many in the mob had been yelling ‘fire, damn you… ye’ dare not!’ Clubs and chunks of ice had been ready in menacing hands!” These show that a witness that was there said that the guards were indeed attacked. It also shows that there was a lot of confusion there and that may have had something to do with why the guards fired since they heard someone say to