Click2History - Highlights of the American Revolution - Chapter 3

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 3 - THE BOSTON MASSACRE<br></font></font></b><br> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">By March of 1770, many Americans were fed up with the presence of British military in the colonies. On March 5th, violence turned deadly.</p> <p>As a taunting mob threw hard-packed snowballs at British soldiers on duty near the customs house, <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/00100/00174r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>soldiers fired</b></a> their muskets into the crowd. <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/28/4/28-0310a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Crispus Attucks</b></a>, an <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h3147b.html" target="_blank"><b>African-American</b></a>, was the <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/archive/06/0601001r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>first to fall</b></a> dead. (Follow this link to view the top-middle picture.) Four others died and six people were injured. The captain of the soldiers, Thomas Preston, was arrested for murder as were <a target="_blank" href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc006709.jpg"><b>eight</b></a> of his men.</p> <p>In an interesting twist of history, <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3a50000/3a53000/3a53200/3a53276v.jpg" target="_blank"><b>John Adams</b></a> - an early proponent of American independence and the second President of the United States - successfully <a target="_blank" href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc006708.jpg"><b>defended</b></a> Preston and six men. Two others were <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p24.html" target="_blank"><b>found guilty</b></a> of manslaughter. Their punishment? They were branded and then released.</p> <p>Parliament - in another concession to the colonies - ended the Townshend tax for everything except a tax on tea. Failure by the British government to get rid of the tea tax led to another famous event: the <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/det/4a20000/4a26000/4a26600/4a26642r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Boston Tea Party</b></a>. On December 16, 1773 colonials disguised as Mohawks boarded English ships in Boston Harbor and <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/28/4/28-0311a.gif" target="_blank"><b>dumped</b></a> all 342 containers of tea into the harbor.</p> <p>Retaliating against ongoing colonial disturbances, Parliament passed a series of Coercive Acts in 1774 (called Intolerable Acts by the Americans). One of those Coercive Laws (the Boston Port Bill) <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/28/4/28-0312a.gif" target="_blank"><b>effectively ended</b></a> all commercial shipping in Boston until Massachusetts paid the tax (on the dumped tea) and reimbursed the East India Company (the owner). Of course, the colonials had no intention of paying either.</p> <p>The situation in Boston worsened when a British General - <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/43/12/43-1153a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Thomas Gage</b></a> - took over as Royal Governor of Massachusetts. With four regiments of British troops moving into Boston, rebellion was close at hand.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="patriot_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="patriot_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="patriot_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>