today we're looking at the boston massacre
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the questions down in the description so by 1770 in boston tensions were extremely high
between american colonists and british officials there over the past six years the british had
tried to impose new taxes and regulations on the colonies the sugar act the stamp act
and the townshed act had all met resistance in response the british had sent 2 000 british
troops to occupy boston to ensure law and order was maintained and that taxes were being paid
boston was a hotbed of resistance with the sons of liberty consistently causing problems for british
tax collectors on the cold snowy evening of march 5th 1770 violence would erupt outside the british
customs house on king street there guarding the customs house was british private you white a
crowd of upset colonists began to gather on king street many of them coming directly from working
on the docks in boston where they made a lot of rope in order to make rope they used a short club
to twist the pieces of twine together these clubs were virtually like baseball bats so private you
white was facing an angry armed mob uh in front of the customs house the mob began to yell insults
and began threatening to attack white white struck back hitting a colonist with the butt of his gun
the crowd now began to throw snowballs chunks of ice and shells at white white called for help and
british captain thomas preston arrived with an additional seven british soldiers the british
soldiers took up a defensive position outside the customs house fearing that the mob might attack
the building witness accounts differ as to what exactly happened next it said that some colonists
were begging the british troops not to fire while others were mocking them and daring them to shoot
the colonists reportedly began to attack the troops with their clubs and then someone heard
the order to fire given the british troops began shooting the crowd suddenly dispersed
with everyone running to get away from the gunfire when the smoke cleared three colonists lay dead in
the street two others were mortally wounded and would die of their wounds and then an additional
six were wounded the first to be killed at the scene was crispus attucks a dock worker of african
and native american descent many consider addicts to be the first american to die in the revolution
others to die at the scene included james gray who was a rope maker and a sailor named james caldwell
the british troops at the scene were arrested and charged with murder the sons of liberty
immediately sprung into action spreading negative propaganda which propaganda is information that is
biased or trying to mislead people to believe one point of view the sons of liberty painted
the british as being bloodthirsty soldiers who attacked an innocent group of peaceful protesters
in addition silversmith paul revere created an engraving which showed his version of the scene
on king street and i'll come back and talk more about that engraving in a little while
but fainting the flame as well was the fact that most of the colonies were literate or could read
so stories of the event spread quickly in newspapers throughout all of the colonies
within days all of the colonies not just massachusetts were absolutely irate about the
events there on king street after seven months the british soldiers were brought to trial ironically
boston lawyer john adams who of course would go on to help write the declaration of independence and
be the second president of the united states he defended the british troops in the trial
even though adams was a patriot and despised british interference in the colonies
he also strongly believed everyone deserved a fair trial so he agreed to defend the british
troops in the trial adams proved that the scene at the customs house was such was in such chaos that
no one could clearly determine if the british troops were given the order to fire or not
captain preston was found not guilty and the other soldiers claimed self-defense only two
of the british soldiers were found guilty but only of manslaughter and so they were
branded on their thumbs which was the legal british punishment at the time the boston
massacre brought the relationship between american colonists and the british to near a breaking point
now it would only take a little nudge and the american revolution would begin in full
now back to the picture by paul revere down in the description i've included a link to the
picture itself what i would ask you to do is take a look at the picture and see if you can identify
three parts of the picture that demonstrate bias basically what is in the picture that clearly
shows paul revere's negative outlook on the british is there anything in the picture that is
inaccurate or you know not really based on truth from what you've heard about what happened in the
boston massacre so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you