The Boston Massacre: Cause Of The American Revolution

In 1776, the British colonists that were living in America were getting tired of Great Britain’s control. The British were strictly ruling the colonies at this time, and the colonists decided that they were going to fight back. Firstly, colonists were given hefty taxes. Great Britain did this to receive more money, since they are in debt from the French and Indian War. Also, there were many unfair laws that were being instilled.

The effect of the Stamp Act crisis was the Virginia Resolves which stated that anyone who approved the taxation of Virginia was an enemy of the colony. The British government also imposed their troops onto the colonists’ lands, placing four regiments of regular troops in the city. The troops often looked for jobs during off-duty in which created competition for the locals. The effect of this was the Boston Massacre which was British troops shooting into a crowd of Boston laborers. In the perspective of the colonists, the British comes in and tries to take what is theirs, imposes taxes for a war the colonists didn’t even ask Britain to interfere with, sends their troops which the colonist has to maintain and care for even though their taking their jobs thus, leaving little to no jobs left for the locals, then after getting fed up with the fact that Britain is controlling a land that isn’t theirs, they protest in which causes the same British troops that took their jobs and to enter their homes to shoot into a crowd that was weaponless.

On March 5, 1770, a heated argument broke out between many strong-willed colonists and British soldiers, about the different taxes the British were making the colonist fulfill and how unjust the British parliament was. The argument quickly escalated into a fight and then a so-called massacre, soon to be named The Boston Massacre. Although, there was the killing of colonists, should this event be called a ‘massacre’? In fact, only 5 colonists were killed in the shooting, and many claim that the colonists were not innocent therefore the Boston Massacre was not a massacre. The first reason the event was not a massacre is the colonists were not innocent and did harm the soldiers.

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.

Since there was debt because of the war, the economy was already very bad in Britain – therefore they taxed the colonies. When the colonies started boycotting British products and threatened to stop trading with them all together, it was successful because Britain’s economy wasn’t strong enough to handle those things. The merchants in Britain couldn’t afford to have trade with America end. If the British merchants were hurt, this would thus hurt The economy as a whole in Britain. In later decades, in the War of 1812, America would try to stop trade with Britain again using a method called embargo, which would not be effective because they did not have the debt that the War had caused.

This photo showed the Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in Kings Street in Boston” just 3 weeks after the Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. It is regarded by historians as an important document of the pre-revolutionary period. At the same time it is known to contain number of inaccuracies because the author used it as a propaganda piece to advance the cause of Independence The British are lined up and an officer is giving an order to fire, implying that the British soldiers are the aggressors. The colonists are shown reacting to the British when in fact they had attacked the soldiers British faces are sharp and angular in contrast to the Americans’ softer, more innocent features. This makes the British look more menacing The British soldiers

There are a lot of turning point that led to the revolutionary war. Every act that the king signed and put intoto effect plus the actions of the red coats fueled the colonies motivation to start a revolution . The four major reasons were the stamp act, Tea act ,common sense by Thomas paine, declaration of independence The stamp act 1765 was the first direct tax put on the British colonies in North America (DOC.A). The colonies were not fond of the stamp act they had no say in what the tax should be on nor what it should be spent on. There was a tax on every piece of printed paper used like licences, newspapers, marriage license, and playing cards .

Essay Question: Describe the significance of the Boston Massacre. 9/22/15 The Boston Massacre’s significance was at a very high ratio in American History when the colonies were still trying to gain their Independence from Great Britain. The turning point I have acknowledged, was that the British troops whom were guarding their Leader’s house, the colonists we’re causing the large conflict. Not the British Troops, They were doing as told but took action basing on their feelings. Rage, discrimination, and the fact that the Colonist male members were taunting them all by throwing snowballs and shouting not necessary statements.

The people’s back were towards them when the people were attacked. Mr. Knox declares that Captain Preston was then agitated that according to him that they were about seventy to eighty people on King Street at the time. They believed that Captain Preston ordered the soldiers to fire and repeated that order. One shot was fired and other soldiers followed until a dozen shots were fired. From the British side it was said that the attack was made by men who are armed with heavy clubs and snowballs being thrown at them which put lives in imminent danger.

Some mobs would harass and assault merchants that did not comply. The cousin of Sam, Mr. John Adams represented the soldiers and helped them get off with manslaughter. They were sent back to England and branded. This especially enraged Bostonians.They were enraged because they thought the soldiers were murders and rotten cowards. Yet in some ways the won by getting the troops out of Boston.