The Boston Massacre went down on March 5, 1770 on Kings Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Many people (who are wrong) think that this was the cause of the Revolutionary War. While this is definitely one of the most elevated events before the call to arms, it definitely isn’t the first. The first would be the Stamp Act, which was established on March 22, 1765. This new B.S would tax all imported paper products. Two days later, Parliament passed the Quartering Act. The Quartering Act demanded colonies house British soldiers in homes provided by the citizen. If they didn’t have enough room they would reside in inns or businesses. Boston colonists were pissed about this and resorted to boycotting British goods. Two weeks before the Boston Massacre, a 12 year old Christopher Seider, was shot dead. When it comes to the exact act that launched the Revolutionary War, that is up to speculation.
Back to it, Edward Garrick, a local wig-maker’s apprentice, started running his mouth at Hugh White, the soldier on guard and then he blasted the kid in the ear with a butt of a rifle. Edward took off and came back with all these teenage boys and said “There’s the son of a b***h that knocked me down!” People around were overall salty just because and were looking for something to square up on. With all these British empirical Acts in play, the water was boiling over and it was time. The British soldiers were mad because they were being mistreated by their officers and the pay was trash, on top of that they had to stay in houses they weren’t welcome in. So all this is going down fast, and more people are showing up and some wise guy started throwing snowballs and ice. Captain Thomas Preston of the British Army heard about all this and got heated quick. He went over to the Customs House with the 29th regiment because he heard things were popping off and he was worried. Customs House is where they kept the King’s money in Boston and he thought people were trying to take off with it, so they had to rush over to the scene.
Rewind a second. So people are getting mad and throwing all kinds of wild stuff, like clams and snowballs. Somebody remembered that in New York there was a riot and it was escalated by the church bells. So this dude goes for it and rings the church bells, which signaled an emergency. The man, the myth, the legend Crispus Attucks heard the bell and quit being a sailor for a minute to go take care of business. Quick caveat, Old Boy Attucks is a tough dude. He was a huge African/Native American who escaped slavery in 1750 and went to Boston to become a whaler. Crispus was 47 at the time of the Boston Massacre but that didn’t stop him from being a boss.
The sailors were especially feisty with the British occupying force. Weeks before they went all out at the Boston docks in a place referred to as the Rope Walks, so there was some previous aggression from both parties. Crispus Attucks, being a saucy sailor, was fired up to throw it down for round two with the British. So Captain Preston is allegedly trying to calm people down. He’s yelling “Don’t shoot, damn you, don’t shoot!” People are being wily and salty, like they do not fear death whatsoever. Apparently the crowd is yelling, “They won’t shoot!” and “Kill them, they won’t shoot!” my favorite, “You lobster scoundrels!” and “Fire and be damned!” along with much more. Mind you these people have no guns and they are talking big to people who are loading guns and they don’t plan on backing off.
If what President John Adams says is true then Crispus pulls off the most thug move possible. This man, apparently, grabbed a bayonet with his bare hand as it was being lunged at the crowd and binked Private Hugh Montgomery in the head with a club using his free hand. Ole Private Montgomery wasn’t having that and decided he had something for our patriot Crispus. Now the British side claimed in court that they misheard and thought Captain Preston yelled fire but it was the crowd and they got confused. Nope, Private Montgomery was salty he got slobberknocked and shot Crispus Attucks. Other soldiers were like “oh lit, we are allowed to fire now?” Two more people were killed instantly and another two died later on and four were injured. Shortly after the soldiers and Captain Preston were arrested and held for pending trial.The trial was crazy, a patriot leader defended the British and people got burned, but that’s for another post.
I will post another entry detailing the trial sometime this week or next week. Thanks for reading and stay tuned.
WORKS CITED:
http://www.ushistory.org/us/9b.asp
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/parliament-passes-the-quartering-act
http://www.bostonmassacre.net/
http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-massacre
http://www.hobart.k12.in.us/gemedia/amrev/revwar/bostmass.htm
http://www.biography.com/people/crispus-attucks-9191864#early-life
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