March 5, 1770 was the day the Boston Massacre occurred, according to Thomas Preston a “White object was thrown in the direction of group of nine British army soldiers” when British soldiers in Boston opened fire on a group of American colonists killing five men named; Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks, and Patrick Carr. Prior to the Boston Massacre the British had passed a plethora of laws which made people pay taxes for anything that had been imported from other places including newspapers, magazines, playing cards and legal documents. This act including the others led to the people protesting against the government for making them pay taxes on everything.
April 5, 1764, Parliament passed a different version of the Sugar and Molasses Act which was about to expire. The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses the act also listed more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, certain wines, pimiento, coffee, cambric and printed calico, and further regulated the export of iron and lumber. The enforced tax on molasses quickly made people not want to buy anymore which had an almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies. While the Sugar Act brought the prices down on the molasses by half of what it used to be, it added over 50 goods and products that are eligible to be taxed which stirred a lot of people because. They were just hit with good news and immediately after got hit back harder by the bad news. Additionally, the new Act included stricter enforcement and regulation with many new limitations. The enforcement included plenty more of military presence in the waters and British court systems to punish tax evaders, making sure nobody got any ideas on not paying their taxes. People soon started thinking they were losing their freedom from doing anything because everything they tried to do to have a comfortable life got ruined by the government passing new laws that find a way to disrupt their lives. The sugar act was probably the most impactful law that was passed because it was the first law passed out of many to come, the people did not know what kind of impact that taxation on sugar was about to have on them. The year that the sugar act was in full effect a lot of people were in distress and angry because they were being charged extra for products that they would buy every other day. They could not buy a cup of tea without being taxed.
Before all the tragedy took place in Boston on March 5, 1770, we look back to the day November 1, 1765 the day the Stamp act was first effective after being passed seven months prior, the reason for the act was there was a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years’ War from 1756 to 1763 and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue source, basically they used the colonist to make their money back and they decided to tax everything that had an official stamp on it. The stamp act had a huge impact on the people of Boston because they were already angry and protesting against the sugar act which hit hard on the colonies economy and great Britain, but the sugar act was only a trade regulation whereas the stamp act actually taxed the people for buying newspaper, magazines, legal documents etc. which created a huge uproar from the people and they did not hold back using physical abuse against the soldiers creating riots in front the town house throwing objects including; rocks, snowballs and hitting them with all kinds of objects.
The Quartering Act of 1765 was passed on May 3rd, 1765 the law was passed so that the people would allow the soldiers to sleep in their houses when needed and eat their food and drink their beverages anytime they wanted. The act was implemented by General Tomas Gage he wanted his soldiers to stay in private residences because he knows that the people from north America stay in abandoned work places and in small barracks, general Thomas thought that the people had to repay them somehow, why not let our soldiers live comfortably? in your houses. The crown passed the law because they thought it would be better living conditions for the colonists and it would save money for the crown. Most colonial legislatures agreed to the new law even though the expense to fund the troops was seen as a tax but people from New York thought it was unfair because they lived right next to the main port where the soldiers would come in which meant that all of the soldiers would take advantage of the people there and the people more than likely ended up with no food and or drinks soon after the soldiers came in and so the assembly came up with the New York suspending act. Parliament passed the New York Suspending Act on July 1767 which suspended the assembly until they complied with the new law. The government decided to give the colonists a little bit of money to take care of the soldiers that were coming in and departing. The Quartering Act was scheduled to be changed every two years. In 1767 its legal rules were changed slightly to include public houses and unoccupied homes.
After the sugar act, stamp act and the quartering act then came the presence of the Townshend Acts, passed by the British Parliament in 1767, named after Charles Townshend, the chancellor of British monetary affairs. The colonists were taxed on the products and goods imported from other places for example; glass, tea, paint, paper, etc. the plan that the government had was to tax most things that they believed would be hard for the colonists to create themselves, but just as they thought it would work, the colonists decided to boycott and not buy anything anymore and make their own glass, lead, paint and many more. the reason behind them taxing the products was the debt they had from the French and Indian war but since they won and at the same time were protecting the colonies in the north, they thought it would only be fair to them if the people were to pay them back for being protected throughout the war. So, after they taxed everything the people did not take it very well because their economy was just getting worse every five years it seemed and the law that they just passed was not helping the people.
By early March 1770, many people living in Boston were expressing their frustrations, anger, resentment out in the streets of Boston. Bostonians had lived through seventeen months of soldiers. Employment was rough so when people would compete for a job there was tension in it and in this case.one morning a soldier from the 29th ambled by the rope walks as William Green shouted at him asking if he would like to work. I t was a setup of humiliation but the soldier not knowing eagerly said yes but as soon as the soldier said yes William then said “go clean my s—t house” while the soldier kept angrily talking Nicholas Ferriter a rival for employment who had been hired for the day, silently climbed out the window and pulled the soldiers legs up from under him making him fall flat on the ground making his cape go over his head revealing his sword, the rope walkers took their chance and took the sword inside the soldier then stormed off because he was out numbered.
The soldier then came back with reinforcements, but the rope workers called even more workers to join them, so the soldiers had to flea once again. But the soldiers did not backdown easily and so they came back with even more soldiers this time with about forty soldiers, sixty-nine-year-old justice of peace John Hill ran up to the soldiers trying to stop them but got knocked down and the soldiers kept heading towards the warehouse where rope walkers worked and they beat up one of the workers and only fourteen workers came to help and still managed to be fended off by the rope workers. This was the start to something very big it created tension for the soldiers because that’s when the people started to gain confidence. People soon started to torment the throwing snowballs and insulting the soldiers, the soldiers were already agitated, and they wanted to fire their weapons but if they were to kill someone they would die to. Richard Palms walked up putting his hand on Prestons right shoulder and said “I hope you don’t intend on firing those” “by no means” Preston said, just as they concluded their conversation someone threw a white object that hit the muzzle of private Montgomery’s musket.
Montgomery got knocked back a little recovered his balance and fired his weapon at the crowd, the crowd erupted looking for cover and only a few stayed frozen in disbelief. several of the other soldiers then fired at the crowd, it took Preston a sufficient amount of time maybe half a minute for him to order the soldiers to halt. The while that Preston took to order them to halt, palms was still standing between Preston and Montgomery, so he then knocked grenadiers ‘gun out of his hands with his walking stick and with the adrenalin going grenadier swung to his other side hitting Preston. The soldiers didn’t hear Preston the first time he ordered them to stop so they kept firing and Montgomery tried spearing but missed, Palms then threw his stick at Montgomery, he then attempted to hurdle towards palms but failed once again. As the soldiers attempted to reload Preston finally took charge and stopped all of the mess and in the end three people were dead, two more lay dying and six more were wounded. three people who were killed were innocent people named Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray and James Cardwell. Crispus was just leaning on a stick watching the whole thing unfold and ended up with two musket balls in his chest for doing nothing other than being a regular hard-working sailor.
Samuel Gray he had walked out and ended up in the scuffle because he heard the bells go off which meant there was a fire going on somewhere. James Cardwell was also standing at doc square where he was standing diagonally from king street from next to warden and Vernon’s barbershop. After the massacre a lot of the people were outraged, and they put bad comments in newspapers and demanded justice. Not all of the colonist were outraged, in fact. Many of the residents of Boston viewed the massacre as an unfortunate incident caused by people who didn’t know what they were doing. They credited British soldiers with the fact that there were not as many casualties as expected. The local community stayed quiet after the funerals of all those killed in the event, even while the Patriot groups were using the massacre to drum up support for independence.
