Gavin M.

The Boston Massacre

Introduction

John Adams once said that “Facts are stubborn things; and
whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our
passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” He
said this because he was defending the British soldiers. The soldiers
who were involved in the incident were arrested. The soldiers said
that they will kill people. There was more than one incident that lead
to the Boston Massacre. Loud cries and screaming were heard on king
street and then gunshots came. People lie on the ground dead.

Chapter one: What lead up to the Boston Massacre?

In Boston there was a law that caused a lot of trouble. The law said
that soldiers could live in people's houses in a time of peace. They
said this was supposed  to keep more people safe. But this law caused
fights between the people and the soldiers.

A little after 9 o'clock on March 5, 1770 four young men, named
Edward Archbald, William Merchant, Francis Archbald, and John
Leech Jr, came down cornhill together. One of the soldiers was
swinging one of his swords against a wall. Probably he got bored after
a while.  There were tons of sparks from the sword. A mean looking
soldier with a large club stood next to him. Edward archbald warned
Mr. merchant to watch out for the sword so he wouldn't get hurt.
Just then the soldier turned around and cut Archbald on the arm and
then stabbed at Merchant. Merchant hit the soldier with a short
stick. The other soldier got 2 more soldiers. The soldiers chased
after Archbald back through the alley. They got to him and whacked him over the head.

The noise brought people to the streets. John hicks, a young boy,
knocked the soldier down, but let him get up.A large crowd of boys
went over the 2 soldiers and pushed them over. In less than a minute,
10-12 soldiers came with sword and clubs. They attacked the
unarmed boys. Samuel Atwood heard the noise and came to see what
was the matter. Can you imagine seeing soldiers attacking unarmed
boys, well I guess if you were around during the Boston Massacre you
would have saw it. As the boys are being chased away, Samuel Altwood
caught up with the soldiers and he said “are you going to kill people?”
They answered YES! You might think that the soldiers might have
been hurting people not killing people, but actually they said they will
kill people.

Chapter two: The event

There were loud noise and loud cries on the on King street. There
were over 50 colonists at the scene. Captain Thomas Preston,  a local
British officer, sent soldiers to the custom house to maintain order.
The soldiers had rifles. The soldiers pointed the rifles and told
people to go home. They still kept pushing people away. Then, they
stabbed some with knives at the end of their rifles. This caused loud
shouting. I think if you stab someone there would be shouting
because you could have killed them. They began daring the soldiers to
fire. Some boys started throwing snowballs. The captain ordered the
soldiers to shoot. The boys kept throwing snowballs. One struck one
of the soldiers, Private Montgomery. That knocked him down and he
shot into the crowd. Then after a few seconds of stunned silence. A
man rushed forward to knock the gun from one the soldiers hands..
He went to hit the caption with his club. All the other soldiers shot
into the crowd as well. Three men were killed immediately and two
died later. More people were injured trying to carry the dead and
wounded. I think that if the boys didn’t start throwing snowballs at
the soldiers then people wouldn’t have been dead. Mr Benjamin Leigh,
a manager at a factory, was able to make the soldiers stop shooting.

Chapter Three: The cause

A lot of people died, or got injured. Five people died and three got
badly injured. The dead were. Mr. Samuel Gray, Crispus Attucks,
Mr. James Caldwell, Mr Samuel Maverick, was learning to be a
dice-maker, he died the next morning, and Mr. Patrick Carr, about
thirty years old, worked at a leather pants maker in Queen street died
two weeks later. Crispus Attucks was a runaway slave and the first to
die in the Boston Massacre. Six people were injured. The soldiers
were ordered back to their barracks. They went to where they live
around one o'clock, and at three o’clock Captain Preston was arrested.
Over the next five years, the colonists kept their rebellion and they
started the Boston Tea Party, put together the first Continental
Congress, and started the American Revolution. Everyone who died in
the Boston Massacre were the first people to die in the American
Revolution because the Boston Massacre was the first event in the
American Revolution.

Conclusion

Loud noises and screaming brought people to the streets to see what
was going on. Maybe if the four people weren't out on the streets  
the soldiers wouldn’t have saw them, which wouldn’t have caused loud
noise. There were a lot of people at the scene. People were throwing
stuff at the soldiers which caused gunshots. Now you heard all about
the Boston Massacre, this makes me think that if all this didn’t
happen there may have been no American Revolution?

Index

Colonists-a settler or inhabitant of a colony

Defending-resisting an attack made on someone or something; protecting from
harm or danger

Immediately-at once; instantly

Unarmed-not equipped with or carrying weapons