Notes

The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre occurred in the evening on March 5th, 1770 on King Street, Boston. Let me tell you how the Boston Massacre happened. On a cold, snowy night of March 5th 1770, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and Begins Taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation.


British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the Customs House, ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the British regulars, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit, leading him to discharge his rifle at the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying : Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell ; and three more were injured. Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, an African American, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.



On november 27, 1770 the British soldiers were put on trial, and the patriots, John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support of the colonial justice system. When the trial ended in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded with an "M" for murder as punishment.