Why Did The Colonials Call The Boston Massacre

Aastha Bhandari
Prof Galloway
Hist 1301
19 Set 2017
1. You are a British Soldier that was assigned to protect the Customs House in Boston. An event the colonials call the “Boston Massacre” took place. You have been called back to London and must defend your innocence in the matter. Defend your actions.

Critical thinking 2 In the years leading up to the American Revolution, the British sought to establish firm control over their American Colonies. The Boston Massacre also known as “Incident on king street “occurred on march 5, 1770.On evening of the march 5, a lone British sentry guarded the entrance to the Boston Customs house where officials collected import duties for the king .The sentry got into an argument with a barber’s apprentice and swung his musket at him , hitting the boy on the head .Other apprentices gathered ,daring the sentry to fight . A squad of British soldiers came to support a sentry who was being pressed by a heckling ,snowballing crowd .,let loose a valley of shots .British soldiers in Boston opened fire on a group of American colonist killing five men .The Boston
massacre began with the small argument between British private Hugh white and a few colonists outside the custom house in the Boston on king street .The argument became even more big when colonists began to harass and throw stick and snow balls at private white . There were over 50colonist .The local British officer, Captain Thomas Preston sent number of soldiers over to the custom house to maintain order. Colonist began to shout at the soldiers, daring them to fire. Unfortunately situation went out of control and soldiers fired into crowd and three colonist died immediately and two more died later from wounds. On march 5,1770 we got the information from captain Thomas Preston’s that there were huge crowd of people who surrounded the sentry with weapons .We were called by the captain Thomas Preston’s to protect both the sentry and king’s money .Couple of boy started throwing snow balls at us . As the crowd grew larger ,people continued to throw ice and taunt us .Soon almost sixty men and dock workers started to complain us about taking their job’s ,property and forcing them to fight in the service in front of a custom house . After that we started receiving a severe blow with a stick, the situation went worst .We heard the word fire and supposed it came from our captain Thomas Preston. So instantly three or four of us fired one after another which resulted death of three men instantly and four were slightly wounded .The whole things was transacted in almost 20 minutes . Captain Preston managed to march us back in our barracks.
The very next day we were told to leave the Boston by the Gov.Hutchinson .All the people of the Boston came on the street to insult and curse us .On march 13, the colony attorney general issued 13 indictments for murder. We were accused that the murder was all planned and all of us had revenge in hearts. In March 6 a warrant was issued for the arrest of Captain Thomas Preston and the officer in charge of the troops who did the shooting .Me and other seven soldiers under Preston’s command were clapped into prison later the same day. In a particular witness testified that one or two weeks before shooting , Pvt Killroy had said that “ he would never miss an opportunity ,if he had one to fire on the Boston people . After Pvt Montgomery fired the first shot .The prosecution
argued ourself .We had no intention to kill someone .It was not planned to kill Samuel Gray. We were just trying to control the situation and obey the order of the captain.

Bibliography http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/massacre.html = (Early America). (n.d.). http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/bostonmassacre.html =(boston2). (n.d.). http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1751-1775/bostonmassacre/anon.htm =(boston3). (n.d.).

(http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1751-1775/bostonmassacre/anon.htm =(boston3))