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

  • How Did The Townshend Act Contribute To The Boston Massacre

    167 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Boston Massacre: The Incident On King Street

    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

  • Compare And Contrast The Following Passage Two Of The Boston Massacre

    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

  • Comparison Of The Battle Of Lexington And Concord

    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

  • What Is The Boston Massacre Dbq

    340 Words  | 2 Pages

    Revolutionary War One cause of the Revolutionary War was the Boston Massacre. The four graves and nickname “Horrid Massacre” shows that the colonists were angry and enraged at the British troops for killing innocent people (Document 3). The colonists believed that British troops should have not fired because they were unarmed and just throwing snowballs, however, from the soldier 's ' point of view, they believed that the colonists are guilty because they were throwing clubs, ice and other sharp things. Also, the colonists were telling the soldiers to fire at them thus confusing them into thinking that their commander was saying “fire”. The angry colonists sought revenge and independence against the British.

    Read More

  • Justified Riot Met With Bloodshed: The Boston Massacre

    1049 Words  | 5 Pages

    The mob was taunting the soldiers and daring them to fire upon them. In fact, Captain Preston was yelling at them to not fire under no conditions. While this was happening, the crowd threw stones and hit the soldiers with sticks. One citizen struck Captain Preston so bad that it disabled his arm for quite a few a minutes. He said that if it had hit him on the head, he would not have survived it.

    Read More

  • What Caused The Boston Massacre

    633 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1770, there were 4,000 red coats roaming the streets of Boston. As a result of the Great Awakening in the 1730s-40s, the highly spiritual colonists had a strong dislike for the bad behavior of the red coats. This caused what is known as the Boston Massacre. The Boston Massacre was the first extremely violent encounter between the British and the colonists with shots fired from the red coats. Oddly enough, this resulted in a period of calm.

    Read More

  • Boston Massacre And The American Revolution

    344 Words  | 2 Pages

    First of all, the Boston Massacre occurred on March 5th, 1770. An out of control and snowballing crowd caused British soldiers to support an overwhelmed post. These soldiers took matters into their own hands and opened fire on the colonists. Therefore, three colonists immediately

    Read More

  • Reasons For The Boston Massacre

    232 Words  | 1 Pages

    The colonials were upset because of ridiculous taxing, which imposed by the British government. The colonist’s response to the situation was boycotting the goods. And so the British government dispatched thousand of troops in Boston, which created a tension between the colonists and the military. On March 5, 1770, the British troops gathered at the custom house in order to protect it. There was a strong resentment in the crowd, as they harassed the troops.

    Read More

  • Significance Of The Boston Massacre

    1125 Words  | 5 Pages

    Due to the impartial view of the British and the desire of the colonists to remove the British the massacre was the perfect event to propagandize, resulting in war and restoration of power with the upper class. The issue of perspective as it pertains to the Boston Massacre is the key point to consider how an individual should view it. The name of the event even gives it an inflated nature calling it a “massacre” when only five people died. While the soldiers were declared guilty, consideration must be given to the fact that they were tried in Boston.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Boston Massacre And Kent State Shooting

    732 Words  | 3 Pages

    There were constant fights breaking out between the colonists and the soldiers. On the evening of March 5, 1770, Private Hugh White was harassed by a crowd after defending a British officer. The crowd had White backed against a building and began throwing snowballs and ice at him as well as threatening his life. White called for help, and Captain Thomas Preston arrived with seven other soldiers. Soon there was a crowd of 300-400 colonists around these men, continuing to jeer them and throw things.

    Read More

  • The Boston Massacre: The Cause Of The American Revolution

    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

  • Boston Massacre Research Paper

    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

  • Argumentative Essay: The Revolutionary War

    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

  • Essay On The Boston Massacre

    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

More about Why Did The Boston Massacre Happen

Open Document