Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The Boston Massacre

March 5th, 1770: a day that live in history forever. The colonists in America would not accept Parliament levying  more and more taxes on them. They had not accepted the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act, so Charles Townshend thought it would be wise to charge custom duties on every-day products. From that moment on, glass, tea, paper and paint were being taxed. Colonists refused to do so, and they started smuggling.  Colonists were also forced to make housing available for the British troops, who sometimes just moved into their homes evethough there were encampments for them. On top of that, colonists where angered because the British were taking all the good jobs at the colonies. So, on March 5th  a British soldier, who was looking for a job, stopped at a public house in Boston. There was a group of colonists there, who got angered by the presence of the British and so they followed the soldier to the street. They started throwing ice, stones and snowballs. A British Captain came to the rescue with aproximately 8 more soldiers. The Captain ordered to hold their fire, but one soldier felt so threatened that he fired his gun. More shots were fired later, and five unarmed colonists were killed. This was later called the Boston Massacre. After going to trail, the charges were dismissed against all the soldiers, except two of them.

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