Imagine having to load up your guns because an angry mob of people are running straight towards you. Think of having to shoot five people and knowing there was no way they could survive. This is the feeling the British soldiers had on March 5th 1770. They were caught in a bad place at a very bad time. Now imagine you are a colonist in America. You were just put under very strict rules from people thousands of miles from where you live. You then see the British soldiers walking in your streets. They were the ones who put the laws on you in the first place.
Then you think, “Do I want to stand up to the soldiers or hide away? ” This was a choice the colonists had to make in 1770. This was a choice the British and the colonists had to make in the event called the Boston Massacre. Why did it start? The Boston Massacre came to be because the British soldiers were enforcing the Townshend Act. The Townshend Act was a set of laws the British were enforcing on the colonists. The British were doing this because King George III was furious with the way the colonists were behaving. Colonists were rebelling against the British rule.
One of the punishments put on the colonists (caused by their behavior) was having to feed and nurture the soldiers. In the British soldiers perspectives, the colonists deserved this punishment because the king basically had full control over them, and they have no choice but to listen. The colonists were forced by the king to feed the soldiers, to provide shelter for the soldiers, and to take care of them if they got hurt, or if they were in need of something.. If the colonists did not do this they would be sent to death by the King.
That made the colonists very angry and they were just complete enemies with the king. They believed that the king had no control over them and that they could be their own free people. This was the reason the Boston massacre came to be. What happened in this event? The colonists started to attack the British with ice rocks and big clubs. They did this because they were angry at the British for putting high taxes and enforcing unfair laws. As a couple of colonists started to attack the British, more of the colonists started to join in.
They screamed, hit, and pushed the soldiers with clubs, mallets and their bare hands. The soldiers were just protecting the colonists’ streets and they were just doing their job. As more people came, and more people attacked the soldiers harder, the captain realized this was a dangerous situation for his men. He did what any person would do when getting attacked. He told his men to load up their guns to partly scare the colonists and be ready. The colonists did not care about the large weapons the British had. They were going to make a point to England, so they just kept attacking.
One of the flying ice rocks(thrown by a colonist) hit a soldier directly on the head. The soldier was down on the ground, still getting beat. This caused him to fire his pre loaded gun at the swarm of colonists. Once the smoke cleared up from the bullet shot, one man was dead on the ground. His name was Crispus Attucks. He was an African american and he was the first man to die. The colonists were absolutely outraged that the British had just shot a man, so they became more angry and kept attacking, this time even harder. The war had just started.
All of the soldiers thought the captain commanded the men to fire their guns because of the gunshot that had just been fired. As bullets flew through the air, some more colonists dropped dead to the ground. By the time the smoke cleared up, five people were left dead from the soldiers bullets. This is Crispus Attucks. He was the first person killed in the Boston Massacre. Some people believe that he was the first one killed only because he was African American. A lot of African Americans were still slaves in this point in time, so he probably just got set free.
What was the bloody massacre? Paul Revere experienced the feeling and sadness of watching the Boston massacre. As he saw people he knew drop dead to the floor (at the hand of the British soldiers) he was deeply affected from this moment in history. He was so mad about this event that he wanted to show everyone the pain he felt. He decided to make an engraving of the event he had just experienced. He wanted to have a voice on what he thought of this event and what he thought other people should know about it. After this engraving was finished, it spread like wildfire through the colonies.
This was the front picture of every newspaper and every magazine. The people outside of Boston began to think that the British had to pay for doing that to the colonists. People started to wonder why were people outside of Boston so furious. They soon found out that there were flaws in the picture. This was so important because there were no telephones to spread the news and people could not just drive or fly to this event to see if it was true. Everyone far away believed everything in Paul’s work because they trusted news papers.
People thought it was true and outrageous. They were very mad and that is how this led up to the war. It made people so mad about British soldiers that it was a reason they were fighting for the American Revolutionary War. What was the outcome of this event The outcome of this event was the colonists starting to get their courage and their bravery to fight against England and their armies. This event actually helped the colonists have more of a reason to fight against England. It helped them because it made them stronger and more angeryer at the British.
The colonists were done with the british and they did not care what happened to them, they wanted revenge for killing their family members. The outcome for the British was that they learned that the colonists are very powerful with weapons or no weapons. They also learned that these kinds of incidents have the right to be punished. The British soldiers were punished for doing this to the colonists. Conclusion Imagine, you just earned the courage to fight against the strongest army in the world. You try and stand up to the British but five people get killed. Think having to draw a picture of the Boston massacre.
Then imagine having this fight effect the whole rest of your life. This was the way the colonists felt. They fought in a battle, with no weapons against soldiers who had weapons. Paul Revere made an engraving on what he thought he saw of the Boston Massacre. The British shot five colonists. The colonists finally learned how it feels to get the bravery to fight strongly. This event was very bad because of the five deaths caused by the British, but it was also good because the colonists learned how to be strong against England. That is why we are here today free!
