Okla-homey
3/5/2007, 07:44 AM
Mar 5, 1770: The "Boston Massacre"
237 years ago tonight, on the cold, snowy evening of March 5, 1770, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building.
The protesters, who referred to themselves as Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who had been deployed to Boston two years earlier in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation -- that would be that whole taxation without representation dealio.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/12156/2001661350659252265_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001661350659252265)
The cobblestone ring on the traffic island at the Devonshire and State Street intersection marks the site where five colonists were killed by a British guard
British Captain Thomas Preston, the detachmant commander of the squad-sized element charged with guarding the Customs House, ordered his men to load, fix their bayonets, remain at "half-****" and join the guard outside the building in a show of force to keep order and discourage any actual assault of the Crown facility where the tax revenues were stored.
At least 80 colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the nine British regulars. Private Hugh Montgomery was hit in the head and bloodied either by a piece of kindling wood, or by a snowball which had been formed around a stone hurled by a protester. In his shock and rage, Montgomery reacted by firing his musket at the crowd. Capt. Preston later testified Montgomery had not been ordered to do so. At any rate, Montgomery pulled his trigger.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/10159/2001633464559939065_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001633464559939065)
Probably a reasonably accurate depiction of the instant of Crispus Attucks' shooting death.
The other soldiers began firing a moment later and a general melee ensued. When the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying - Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell - and three more were injured. The crowd fled and order was restored.
Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, a free black man, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.
The British soldiers were put on trial, and American lawyers John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support for the rule of law. When the trial ended nine months after the incident in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter, were drummed out of the army and had their thumbs branded with an "M" as punishment. The other seven, including Capt Preston, were acquitted of the murders on the grounds their actions were excused as self-defense.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/12156/2001634287368192652_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001634287368192652)
John Adams. Big time patriot himself and second president of the United States. He agreed to defend the indicted soldiers because he beleived it was important that they receive a fair trial
Defense attorney John Adams, later entered these words into his diary:
"The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right.
"This however is no Reason why the Town should not call the Action of that Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused them to be sent here. But it is the strongest Proofs of the Danger of Standing Armies."
http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/9666/2001652601198947743_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001652601198947743)
A copy of the published trial report, now in the National Archives.
The Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group formed in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act, advertised the "Boston Massacre" as a battle for American liberty and just cause for the removal of British troops from Boston.
Patriot Paul Revere made a provocative engraving of the incident, depicting the British soldiers lining up like an organized army to suppress an idealized representation of the colonist uprising. Copies of the engraving were distributed throughout the colonies and helped reinforce negative American sentiments about British rule.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/9593/2001677583872269444_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001677583872269444)
Paul Revere's provocative engraving. Factually flawed because it depicted the incident as a scene of deliberate orderly fire by the soldiers on order from their commander and the colonists are illustrated without their clubs and show no violent intent.
Five years later, in April 1775, the American Revolution actually began when British troops from Boston ordered to confiscate an illegal arms cache skirmished with American militiamen at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/12675/2001690199217163053_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001690199217163053)
237 years ago tonight, on the cold, snowy evening of March 5, 1770, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building.
The protesters, who referred to themselves as Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who had been deployed to Boston two years earlier in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation -- that would be that whole taxation without representation dealio.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/12156/2001661350659252265_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001661350659252265)
The cobblestone ring on the traffic island at the Devonshire and State Street intersection marks the site where five colonists were killed by a British guard
British Captain Thomas Preston, the detachmant commander of the squad-sized element charged with guarding the Customs House, ordered his men to load, fix their bayonets, remain at "half-****" and join the guard outside the building in a show of force to keep order and discourage any actual assault of the Crown facility where the tax revenues were stored.
At least 80 colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the nine British regulars. Private Hugh Montgomery was hit in the head and bloodied either by a piece of kindling wood, or by a snowball which had been formed around a stone hurled by a protester. In his shock and rage, Montgomery reacted by firing his musket at the crowd. Capt. Preston later testified Montgomery had not been ordered to do so. At any rate, Montgomery pulled his trigger.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/10159/2001633464559939065_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001633464559939065)
Probably a reasonably accurate depiction of the instant of Crispus Attucks' shooting death.
The other soldiers began firing a moment later and a general melee ensued. When the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying - Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell - and three more were injured. The crowd fled and order was restored.
Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, a free black man, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.
The British soldiers were put on trial, and American lawyers John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support for the rule of law. When the trial ended nine months after the incident in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter, were drummed out of the army and had their thumbs branded with an "M" as punishment. The other seven, including Capt Preston, were acquitted of the murders on the grounds their actions were excused as self-defense.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/12156/2001634287368192652_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001634287368192652)
John Adams. Big time patriot himself and second president of the United States. He agreed to defend the indicted soldiers because he beleived it was important that they receive a fair trial
Defense attorney John Adams, later entered these words into his diary:
"The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right.
"This however is no Reason why the Town should not call the Action of that Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused them to be sent here. But it is the strongest Proofs of the Danger of Standing Armies."
http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/9666/2001652601198947743_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001652601198947743)
A copy of the published trial report, now in the National Archives.
The Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group formed in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act, advertised the "Boston Massacre" as a battle for American liberty and just cause for the removal of British troops from Boston.
Patriot Paul Revere made a provocative engraving of the incident, depicting the British soldiers lining up like an organized army to suppress an idealized representation of the colonist uprising. Copies of the engraving were distributed throughout the colonies and helped reinforce negative American sentiments about British rule.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/9593/2001677583872269444_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001677583872269444)
Paul Revere's provocative engraving. Factually flawed because it depicted the incident as a scene of deliberate orderly fire by the soldiers on order from their commander and the colonists are illustrated without their clubs and show no violent intent.
Five years later, in April 1775, the American Revolution actually began when British troops from Boston ordered to confiscate an illegal arms cache skirmished with American militiamen at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/12675/2001690199217163053_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001690199217163053)