Boston Massacre
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Transcript of Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Prelude to a Revolution
What was it?
• An attack on colonist civilians by British troops and its legal aftermath
• Led to Revolutionary War
• A tense situation due to a heavy British military presence in Boston that boiled over to incite brawls between soldiers and civilians
• Troops fired into a rioting crowd
What started it all?
• A wigmaker apprentice Edward Garrick called to British Captain John Goldfinch that he was late in paying his barber’s bill
• Goldfinch had paid his bill and ignored the boy
• Hour later Garrick remained vocal
• Private Hugh White clubbed Garrick over the head
• His friend yelled and ran away, returning with more locals and began throwing snowballs and litter
• Mob got bigger
• British presence got bigger
• Everyone got more angry
• Very tense situation
Who fired the first shot?
• Private Hugh Montgomery was knocked down by a huge piece of ice
• As he fell, he thought he heard someone yell, “Fire!”
• He fired along with all of the other soldiers except for one
• Fired into crowd
• 11 people hit
Killed Instantly
• Crispus Attucks – A former slave believed to be the very first killed. He worked as a sailor
• Samuel Gray – rope maker
• James Caldwell - mariner
Died the Next Day
• Samuel Maverick
• Was at the back of the crowd
• Hit by a ricocheting musket ball
Died Two Weeks Later
• Patrick Carr
• 30 years old
• Irish Immigrant
Yellow Journalism
• Paul Revere dashed off an engraving entitled The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street, Boston.
• Was an unfortunate event not a massacre.
The Trial
• 8 British soldiers were charged
• John Adams was defense attorney
• 6 acquitted
• 2 found guilty of manslaughter
• Branded thumbs
Outcome
• Samuel Adams, one of Boston’s radical leaders, insisted that Thomas Hutchinson, the British Royal Governor, withdrawal troops from Boston.