Boston Massacre: View Versus Colonists' View

The Boston Massacre was a dangerous gathering that happened in 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a small street argument between American colonists and one soldier but became gruesome very quickly.

The Boston Massacre happened because put a lot of taxes on the American colonies items such as taxes on tea, glass, paper, etc. The taxes were part of something called the Townshend Acts. The people really hated these laws. They thought the laws took their rights away from them. Just like before that when Britain had brought up the Stamp Act, the colonists began to protest and brought more soldiers for safety. As more than thousands of soldiers occupied the city of ten thousand colonists and tried to enforce Britain’s tax laws. Whenever there was a protest, the patriots vandalized stores that were selling items and also caused harm to the owners and some of the customers.

View:

In 1770 at approximately the time of 9:00 pm, an angry crowd of people gathered in front of sentry Hugh White who was at the time standing on guard outside of the Customs House to do the usual protest. Before this had happened, the others had already gotten in another street fight so they were very prepared and ready to approach. One of the leaders who went by the name of Edward Garrick started provoking private White saying his personal issues and other things about his company. Probably one the worst mistake that was made that very evening, White got so mad to the extent that he hit Garrick in the face with something called. From there the situation went from zero to ten. When Captain Preston saw what was happening, he started trying his best to trying to control the crowd but they were getting angrier and out of control by the second. There were seven soldiers that attempted to help White while in the situation he was in, but they couldn’t since he was away from their reach. Some of the people that were in the crowd were throwing rocks. At some point in time of the incident, someone dared them to fire and claimed that they were too scared to do so.

A few minutes past and the violence was over the top. One of the people in the crowd threw a baseball bat at private Hugh Montgomery which caused him to fall. At that point, Montgomery shot into the air. He was hit again in the head with a baseball bat and Montgomery did what he had to do and shot the person who threw the baseball at him, Richard Palmes who quickly fled. At that very point in time, another soldier that went by the name of Private Matthew Kilroy aimed at the other two attackers attempting to shoot them, the people that he aimed at were named Edward Langford and Samuel Gray. Gray begged for them not to fire. Probably the anger and the fear of being beaten by a club like his fellow soldier, private Kilroy pulled the trigger mortally wounding Gray. More shots were fired and more people fell to the ground wounded or dead, leaving the aftermath of 5 civilian deaths.

It was unfortunate that the innocent people were killed, but those who were shot in the Boston Massacre were as much victims of the angry crowd as they were of the accidental shooting by the soldiers. For the likes of Samuel Adams, the outcome could not have been more beneficial. Quickly the incident was blown out of proportion and used for propaganda. It seemed that a chance for a fair trial in Boston was impossible. Unexpectedly two talented colonial lawyers, Josiah Quincy and John Adams took it upon themselves to defend the soldiers. The justice prevailed and the jury vindicated regulars. Preston and his four men were fully acquitted and the other two soldiers were found guilty of lesser charges and sent back to England. Even though tragic, the death of the colonists actually helped to improve relations between the King and the colony. Just a month after the incident, in April 1770 the unpopular Townshend acts were lifted and everyone in Boston started breathing better, except perhaps for Samuel Adams who was the only losing party in this tragic event in the history of America.

Colonists View:

A small argument between Private Hugh White and a few colonists outside the Custom House in Boston on King Street. The argument began to escalate as more colonists gathered and began to harass and throw sticks and snowballs at Private White. Soon there were over 50 colonists at the scene. The local officer of the watch, Captain Thomas Preston, sent a number of soldiers over to the Custom House to maintain order. However, the sight of soldiers armed with bayonets just aggravated the crowd further. They began to shout at the soldiers, daring them to fire. Captain Preston then arrived and tried to get the crowd to disperse. Unfortunately, an object thrown from the crowd struck one of the soldiers, Private Montgomery, and knocked him down. He fired into the crowd. After a few seconds of stunned silence, a number of other soldiers fired into the crowd as well. Three colonists died immediately and two more died later from wounds. The crowd was eventually dispersed by the acting governor of Boston, Thomas Hutchinson. Thirteen people were arrested including eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians. They were charged with murder and put in jail awaiting their trial. troops were removed from the city as well.

The Boston Massacre became a rallying cry for patriotism in the colonies. Groups like the Sons of Liberty used it to show the evils of rule. Although the American Revolution would not start for another five years, the event certainly moved people to look at rule in a different light.

The Boston massacre has many stories to it based on the side that you research, most of the articles that you find only are biased, mainly favouring or the colonists. they do this because they want to make it seem like the whole massacre was started by the opposite side that they are on and obviously in order to do so they have to get the press and other people to believe their side of the story so that the more people that believe their side would be considered the victims. There aren’t many articles that have both sides of the argument to it and you have to know both sides so that you can have your own opinion instead of listening to others opinions.