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Contents

1. Prelude to the Boston Massacre

2. Violence Erupts between Colonists and Soldiers

3. Boston Massacre Fueled Anti-British Views

4. John Adams for the Defense

5. Aftermath of the Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-Britain sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution.

Prelude to the Boston Massacre

Tensions ran high in Boston in early 1770. As more than 2,000 British soldiers occupied the city of 16,000 colonists and tried to enforce Britain's tax laws, American colonists rebelled against the taxes they found repressive, rallying around the cry, "no taxation without representation."

Skirmishes between colonists and soldiers - and between patriot colonists and colonists loyal to Britain (loyalists) - were increasingly common. To protest taxes, patriots often vandalized stores selling British goods and intimidated store merchants and their customers.

On February 22, a mob of patriots attacked a known loyalist's store. Customs officer Ebenezer Richardson lived near the store and tried to break up the rock-pelting crowd by firing his gun through the window of his home. His gunfire struck and killed an 11-year-old boy named Christopher Seider and further enraged the patriots.

Several days later, a fight broke out between local workers and British soldiers. It ended without serious bloodshed but helped set the stage for the bloody incident yet to come.

Violence Erupts between Colonists and Soldiers

On the frigid, snowy evening of March 5, 1770, Private Hugh White was the only soldier guarding the King's money stored inside the Custom House on King Street. It wasn't long before angry colonists joined him and insulted him and threatened violence.

At some point, White fought back and struck a colonist with his bayonet. In retaliation, the colonists pelted him with snowballs, ice and stones. Bells started ringing throughout the town - usually a warning of fire - sending a mass of male colonists into the streets. As the assault on White continued, he eventually fell and called for reinforcements.

In response to White's plea and fearing mass riots and the loss of the King's money, Captain Thomas Preston arrived on the scene with several soldiers and took up a defensive position in front of the Custom House.

Worried that bloodshed was inevitable, some colonists reportedly pleaded with the soldiers to hold their fire as others dared them to shoot. Preston later reported a colonist told him the protestors planned to "carry off [White] from his post and probably murder him."

The violence escalated, and the colonists struck the soldiers with clubs and sticks. Reports differ of exactly what happened next, but after someone supposedly said the word "fire," a soldier fired his gun, although it's unclear if the discharge was intentional.

Once the first shot rang out, other soldiers opened fire, killing five colonists - including Crispus Attucks, a local stevedore of mixed racial heritage - and wounding six.

Boston Massacre Fueled Anti-British Views

Within hours, Preston and his soldiers were arrested and jailed and the propaganda machine was in full force on both sides of the conflict.

Preston wrote his version of the events from his jail cell for publication, while Sons of Liberty leaders such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams incited colonists to keep fighting the British. As tensions rose, British troops retreated from Boston to Fort William.

Paul Revere encouraged anti-British attitudes by etching a now-famous engraving depicting British soldiers callously murdering American colonists. It showed the British as the instigators though the colonists had started the fight.

It also portrayed the soldiers as vicious men and the colonists as gentlemen. It was later determined that Revere had copied his engraving from one made by Boston artist Henry Pelham.

John Adams for the Defense

It took seven months to arraign Preston and the other soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre and bring them to trial. Ironically, it was American colonist, lawyer and future President of the United States John Adams who defended them.

Adams was no fan of the British but wanted Preston and his men to receive a fair trial. After all, the death penalty was at stake and the colonists didn't want the British to have an excuse to even the score. Certain that impartial jurors were nonexistent in Boston, Adams convinced the judge to seat a jury of non-Bostonians.

During Preston's trial, Adams argued that confusion that night was rampant. Eyewitnesses presented contradictory evidence on whether Preston had ordered his men to fire on the colonists.

But after Richard Palmes testified that, "...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," Adams argued that reasonable doubt existed; Preston was found not guilty.

The remaining soldiers claimed self-defense and were all found not guilty of murder. Two of them - Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy - were found guilty of manslaughter and were branded on the thumbs as first offenders per English law.

To Adams' and the jury's credit, the British soldiers received a fair trial despite the vitriol felt towards them and their country.

Aftermath of the Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre had a major impact on relations between Britain and the American colonists. It further incensed colonists already weary of British rule and unfair taxation and roused them to fight for independence.

Yet perhaps Preston said it best when he wrote about the conflict and said, "None of them was a hero. The victims were troublemakers who got more than they deserved. The soldiers were professionals...who shouldn't have panicked. The whole thing shouldn't have happened."

Over the next five years, the colonists continued their rebellion and staged the Boston Tea Party, formed the First Continental Congress and defended their militia arsenal at Concord against the redcoats, effectively launching the American Revolution.

Sources

After the Boston Massacre. John Adams Historical Society.

Boston Massacre Trial. National Park Service: National Historical Park of Massachusetts.

Paul Revere's Engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

The Boston Massacre. Bostonian Society Old State House.

The Boston "Massacre." H.S.I. Historical Scene Investigation.

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Prelude to the Boston Massacre Violence Erupts between Colonists and Soldiers Boston Massacre Fueled Anti-British Views John Adams for the Defense Aftermath of the Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston.

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10 things you may not know about the boston tea party 

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10 things you may not know about the boston tea party 

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On the night of December 16, 1773, dozens of colonists boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and hurled 342 crates of tea overboard in an act of political protest. While the story of the midnight raid has been often told, here are 10 facts you may not know about the Boston Tea Party.

1. The "tea partiers" were not protesting a tax hike, but a corporate tax break.
The protestors who caffeinated Boston Harbor were railing against the Tea Act, which the British government enacted in the spring of 1773. Rather than inflicting new levies, however, the legislation actually reduced the total tax on tea sold in America by the East India Company and would have allowed colonists to purchase tea at half the price paid by British consumers. The Tea Act, though, did leave in place the hated three-pence-per-pound duty enacted by the Townshend Acts in 1767, and it irked colonists as another instance of taxation legislation being passed by Parliament without their input and consent. The principle of self-governance, not the burden of higher taxes, motivated political opposition to the Tea Act.

2. Commercial interests, perhaps more than political principles, motivated many protestors.
The Tea Act was a government bailout for a company on the brink of financial collapse, the flailing East India Company, which was deemed to be, in modern terms, "too big to fail." The legislation gave the East India Company a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade, allowing it to bypass colonial merchants as middlemen and to even undercut the price of smuggled Dutch tea, which was widely consumed in the colonies. Thus, the Tea Act directly threatened the vested commercial interests of Boston's wealthy merchants and smugglers, such as John Hancock, who fomented the revolt.

3. George Washington condemned the Boston Tea Party.
Although America's foremost Revolutionary figure wrote in June 1774 that "the cause of Boston...ever will be considered as the cause of America," he strongly voiced his disapproval of "their conduct in destroying the Tea." Washington, like many other elites, held private property to be sacrosanct and believed the perpetrators should compensate the East India Company for the damages.

4. It was the British reaction to the Boston Tea Party, not the event itself, that rallied Americans.
Many Americans shared Washington's sentiment and viewed the Boston Tea Party as an act of vandalism by radicals rather than a heroic patriotic undertaking. There was less division among the colonists, however, about their opposition to the measures passed by the British government in 1774 to punish Boston. The legislation closed the port of Boston until damages were paid, annulled colonial self-government in Massachusetts and expanded the Quartering Act. Colonists referred to the measures as the "Intolerable Acts," and they led to the formation of the first Continental Congress.

5. For decades, the identities of participants were shrouded in secrecy.
The band of protestors was tight-lipped. Even after American independence, they refused to reveal their identities, fearing they could still face civil and criminal charges as well as condemnation from elites for engaging in mob behavior and the wanton destruction of private property. Even today, only the names of some of the participants are known.

6. The event wasn't dubbed the "Boston Tea Party" until a half-century later.
For years, Bostonians blandly referred to the protest as "the destruction of the tea." The earliest newspaper reference to the "Boston Tea Party" doesn't appear until 1826. In the 1830s, two books-A Retrospect of the Tea-Party and Traits of the Tea Party-popularized the moniker and cemented it in popular culture.

7. There was a second Boston Tea Party.
Three months after the Boston Tea Party, Bostonians once again sent tea splashing when 60 disguised men boarded the Fortune in March 1774, forced the crew below deck and dumped tea chests into the harbor. The sequel wasn't quite as impressive as the original, however, as only 30 chests were sent overboard.

8. Subsequent "tea parties" were held in other colonies.
Tea Act protests spread to other colonies throughout 1774. In cities such as New York, Annapolis and Charleston, South Carolina, patriots dumped tea off ships or burned it in protest.

9. The financial loss was significant.
It's estimated that the protestors tossed more than 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. That's enough to fill 18.5 million teabags. The present-day value of the destroyed tea has been estimated at around $1 million.

10. One "tea partier" appeared to rise from the dead.
After being knocked unconscious by a falling tea crate in the hold of a ship, John Crane was reportedly thought to be dead and hidden by his compatriots under a pile of wood shavings in a nearby carpenter's shop. He awoke hours later, however, and was the only man harmed in the Boston Tea Party.

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10 Things You May Not Know About the Boston Tea Party

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On the night of December 16, 1773, dozens of colonists boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and hurled 342 crates of tea overboard in an act of political protest. While the story of the midnight raid has been often told, here are 10 facts you may not know about the Boston Tea Party.