The Boston Massacre Took Place in 1770 Outside The Boston Customs House

The Boston Massacre took place in 1770 outside the Boston Customs House. More than one hundred Bostonians confronted a band of nine British soldiers near a sentry box outside the Boston Customs House (Gale, 1999). Tensions between the Bostonians and the British soldiers rose, and the British ended up fatally wounding five civilians.

The five civilians were, “Crispus Attucks, a former slave turned sailor; James Caldwell, another sailor; Patrick Carr, an immigrant Irishman who made leather trousers; Samuel Gray, a rope maker; and Samuel Maverick, the brother-in-law of mob leader Ebenezer Mackintosh” (Gale, 1999). Additionally six other innocent bostonians were wounded. The Boston Massacre was a very important event because it had a major impact on the relations between the American and British colonists. The seven years war left the British in financial distress which lead to taxing the colonies. The acts caused a fierce debate over whether the British Parliament had the right to tax American colonies only for raising revenue. Colonists protested that the British cannot tax as they didn’t have representation in the government. The Stamp Act taxed stamps, cards, legal documents, and newspapers.

Many protests took place in opposition to the stamp act. Another Act was the Townshend Act where the British put a tax on colonial imports and stationed troops at major colonial ports. To enforce the Acts, the British sent naval and military forces to Boston, which lead to the Boston Massacre. Later in 1765, “delegates from American colonies came together in New York City and made petitions to British Parliament to repeal the Acts. It provided the British a taste of what would happen soon” (Khan Academy). As a result of the Boston Massacre, the colonial leaders used the deaths as propaganda.

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