Essay On The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre was one of the many causes that started the American Revolution. The Massacre included 5 colonists getting killed by British soldiers while rioting against British troops in Boston. The Massacre started with a boy insulting a British soldier, then a crowd started rioting causing 5 people dead, and the aftermath included 2 soldiers getting arrested and 6 soldiers left unguilty.

The Boy Who Started It All  

On the evening of March 5, 1770, a boy named Edward Garric, a barber apprentice, insulted a British soldier named Thomas Preston. A soldier was standing guard at the Customs House for not noticing his haircut. The soldier hit him with a musket in the face and the boy ran away crying. A little later, he brought his group of friends and they started insulting the soldier, calling him names like “Lousy rascal” and “Bloody Back.” A crowd gathers and men start running in the streets screaming “ Town burn turns out.” This was a call usually used to alert the colonists of a fire. Some of the colonists thought there was an actual fire and bright buckets of water. Others knew it wasn't an actual fire and brought rocks and fence railings. ( Info from How the American Revolution Began, Standiford Les. Desperate Sons.)          

The Crowd Riots

When the colonists arrived at the Customs House they started attacking the soldiers with rocks and fence railings. Things got out of hand and the soldier standing guard called for backup. A mad man hit the soldier with a club,” Fire” someone shouts causing one of the soldiers to shoot at someone creating smoke. As a result, Thomas Preston started screaming at the soldier to stop firing. A little later, when the smoke cleared the colonist noticed that 2 people were dead and 3 more were dying and 8 other people were wounded. The first person that people believed to have died first was Criptus Attucks. The crowd got really mad when they saw this and wanted the soldiers arrested. The governor agreed to this and then they had a trial for the soldiers to figure out whether they should be guilty of murder.  ( Info from Boston Massacre History.com Editors, Standiford Les Desperate sons, Seeds Of Revolution Terry Miller Shannon.)

The Murder Trial

At Thomas Preston, Trial John Adams argued about what happened that night. A witness named Richard Palmes said, "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,” John Adams agreed with this statement. As a result, Thomas Preston was found not guilty. However, the other 2 soldiers were found guilty, jailed, and branded on their thumbs. Branded is a punishment that includes people getting burned with hot metal that leaves a scar on the victim's body. ( Info from Boston Massacre History.com Editors.)

The Conclusion

The Boston Massacre was a horrific event that started on the evening of March 5, 1770. That left 5 people dead and 8 people wounded. When this happened the colonists got mad and succeeded in getting 2 soldiers arrested which made them very happy. Even though the Boston Massacre was not an actual massacre it was still an event that all the colonists were sure to remember for the rest of their lives.