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Boston Massacre Essay

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The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores'; (Mahin 1). A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.
There are three major things that led to the Boston Massacre: First was the …show more content…

To please the crowds Governor Hutchinson arrested the soldiers and promised the people that there would be a trial. John Adams and Josiah Quincy took the defense of the soldiers and Preston. The soldiers went to trial in September and they and captain Preston pleaded innocent. The eight men and Preston were tried separately and only two were found guilty. The others were acquitted while the two found guilty were branded on the hand and released, an easy penalty for murder. Preston was found innocent. Adams was successful in proving the soldiers fired in self-defense.
The soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre were proven innocent. “Adam proved that the soldiers fired in self-defense'; (no author 10).
I believe the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre and/or the captain Tomas Preston should have been convicted Guilty.
The five deaths were unjustified and unneeded. All of the five men were unarmed at the time of the shootings. If someone throws an apple at you, you don’t shoot him or her. In a today’s court system I believe them British soldiers would have been guilty and been convicted with murder. “Adams said, the killing were justified and blamed the violence of the immigrant Patrick Carr and Crispus Attucks'; (Mahin 1). So if Adams believes the death of the five men were blamed on them two how come they weren’t just arrested and how come the others were shot. “Adams told the jury

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