Boston Massacre Essay Example

Boston massacre happened on the 5th of March in the year 1770 between troops of British soldiers and a patriotic mob. After few hours of the encounter, five British soldiers had been killed. Nonetheless, people took some time to understand the reasons and situation leading to the annihilation and the subsequent trials. The massacre is merely understood when individuals get to the background of other momentous events. The essay, therefore, seeks to illustrate the political events leading to the Boston Massacre.

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From the year 1767, people had been opposing the presence of Britain troops in Boston (Detail of the Monument to the Victims of the Boston Massacre on Boston Common). Specifically, they were against the heavy tax burden levied on the communal products that were taken from the colonies. The products comprised of paper, tea and glass. In the year 1768 consequently in Boston, Citizens rioted and kept calling soldiers names, fighting them with sticks, stones and other arms and also spat on them. The combatants were further prohibited from performing their duties and this led to increased tension in the city.

In the nightfall of the march 5th 1770, a British combatant stood guard on King street on the outside of the custom house. Wigmaker apprentice by the name Edward Garrick called out the British combatant, Captain John Goldfinch that he hadnt paid a bill due to the master of Garrick. Goldfinch disregarded the slur (Weiss, Lynne and Technologies). Private White told Garrick to be more reverential to the officer. Garrick bartered invectives with Private White leaving his post, dared the boy thereby striking him with a musket on the flank of the head. Garrick cried in pain as one of his buddies contended with white.A large crowd was attracted by the incident. A nineteen-year-old Henry Knox, who was a bookseller, came to the scene and warned White that he would die if he dared fire.

As the nightfall proceeded, the horde around Private White bred grander and more rowdy. Church bells which usually connoted fire were resonated thereby bringing extra people out (Shea and Therese). More than fifty Bostonians constrained around white commanded by a mixed-race absconded slave by the name Crispus Attucks, who threw objects at the Sentinel puzzling him to open fire with his weapon. White sought for assistance from the Custom House where he had taken up the cover. A nearby barracks was alerted by Runners, and Captain Preston was the officer in charge. Preston dispatched six privates and a non- commissioned officer with fixed bayonets. The officers of Britain were called in to provide relief and support. Thomas Preston was the head of the combatants. On their arrival, unfortunately, they met an inordinate and provocative swarm of civilians.

When they got hold of Private White at the stairs of the custom house, some combatants encumbered their muskets thereby arraying themselves in a falcate formation. At this point, Preston bellowed at the multitude that was estimated to be around 300 to 400 to disperse. The multitude persisted to stay around the combatants provoking them by bellowing, Fire! by sputtering at and flinging burgeons and other minute objects at the soldiers. A resident innkeeper Richard Palme carrying a bat approached Preston asking him if the weaponries of the soldiers were encumbered. Preston guaranteed him that they were loaded but the soldiers would not open fire lest he gave the order and conferring to his individual deposition, it was improbable to do it as he was upended in anterior of the combatants. Thomas and his soldiers were unable to disperse the multitude that kept on intoning that if the combatants fired, they then would be stemmed.

Private Montgomery was struck by a thrown object knockings him down causing his musket to drop (Captain Thomas Preston's Account of The Boston Massacre). He repossessed his weapon and was understood to indignantly shout Damn you, fire, and then liquidated it to the mass. Even though he ordered the combatants not to shoot, they went forward and opened fire, thereby causing the death of three civilians (Palimpsest). Some of the civilians were injured, and three of them died. The dead were, Crispus Attucks, James Caldwell and Samuel gray. An apprentice by the name Christopher Monk was among the seriously injured in the incident. Even though he recuperated to some point, he was physically challenged and ultimately died in the year 1780 from the injuries that he had obtained from the violence a decade prior (Kjelle and Marylou).

The multitude repositioned from the area to the nearby streets. Also, Captain Preston straightaway called out many 29th Squad combatants that espoused defensive positions within state house (Cannon, John, and Robert). Thomas Hutchinson, the acting governor, was subpoenaed to the region and was enforced by the crusade of the multitude into the state house assembly chambers. He was minimally able to reinstate order from the upper circle, promising that investigation into the murders would be fair if the crowd disseminated.

An assembly was christened after seven months to petition the withdrawal of British soldiers from the city. Captain Preston with his combatants was further tried of man slaughter. Massive evidence was produced by the citizens, each one of the reciting a different account of the happenings at the annihilation. Preston was then secured through John Adams, Josiah Quincy and Robert Auchmuty. Consequently, Captain Preston was then cleared by the jury of Boston. The soldiers were also defended by the jury who came from outside Boston a month later and were therefore cleared by self-defense. In the end, two soldiers were found guilty and charged with murder due to the overwhelming evidence that showed them shooting into the multitude.

The trials were longest in the history of Britain as judge bought more and more time to ease off the tension (Boston Massacre). For the first time in history during the trials, the term reasonable doubt was used by the judge. Lawyers and historians further remember the events as the soldiers used the clergy to evade death penalties. Even though the massacre was a solitary event, it enticed a lot of responsiveness, and it took many eons to be tacit.

Captain Preston gives a more accurate account of the massacre than Paul Revere. Captain Preston explain word to word of the occurrence of the incident, and one can follow the flow and understand what happened at the time while the engraving of Paul Revere does not bring out the incidents that led to the firing. The engraving only shows soldiers shooting at people and therefore makes it hard for one to understand the occurrence of the events.

Works Cited

"Boston Massacre." (2013): Credo Reference Collections. Web. 2 June 2016.

"Captain Thomas Preston's Account of The Boston Massacre[Weblink]." (2013): Credo Reference Collections. Web. 2 June 2016.

"Detail of the Monument to the Victims of the Boston Massacre on Boston Common, 1888." (2014): Credo Reference Collections. Web. 2 June 2016.

"Palimpsest: Site of the Boston Massacre." Harvard Review 47 (2015): 45. Literature Resource Center. Web. 2 June 2016.

Cannon, John, and Robert Crowcroft. Boston Massacre (1770) Boston Massacre. n.p.: Oxford University Press, 2015. Oxford Reference. Web. 2 June 2016.

Indictment And Arraignment In The Boston Massacre Trials. n.p.: 2015. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 June 2016.

Kjelle, Marylou Morano. The Boston Massacre. Minneapolis, MN: Abdo Publishing, 2013. Discovery eBooks. Web. 2 June 2016.

Shea, Therese. The Boston Massacre. New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2014. Discovery eBooks. Web. 2 June 2016.

Weiss, Lynne, and Technologies Planman. Crispus Attucks And The Boston Massacre. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 2013. Discovery eBooks. Web. 2 June 2016.