There are many questions surrounding the famous Boston Massacre. How did it begin? Was there an order given to fire on the crowd? What affect did it have on the aftermath? Looking at depositions and facts collected from people that were there, you can begin to piece this event together and find some of these answers. I intend to show that there was no order given to fire, and that an object thrown from the crowd was the spark that ignited the incident.
First, it is important to know the events that led up to the Boston Massacre. Tensions between the British and the American colonist began to rise after the French and Indian War, known by some as the Seven Year War. In 1763 at the end of the war there were British soldiers all through the colonies. Most were stationed in people’s homes. A new law passed by the government did not allow for expansion by the colonist past the Appalachian Mountains. These things forced on the American colonist made them feel as if they were lesser citizens then those of the British Isles. Furthermore, the British needed to find a way to pay for what they had spent fighting the French and Indian War. They began to tax the American colonist heavily. Taxes on all imports such as sugar, food, and anything else except tea started to get the colonist in an uproar. The Stamp Act in 1765, which is an act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same; and for amending such parts of the several acts of parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the said colonies and plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned, was so unpopular that it was overturned just two years later.
The town of Boston itself had been particularly bitter since 1768 when Britain sent two regiments to Boston to enforce the Laws of Parliament. This infuriated the people of Boston. “They will not find a rebellion, they might in fact make one.” said Benjamin Franklin. The tensions of the Bostonians rose rapidly at this time. This lead to many confrontations between the colonist and the British soldiers. Therefore, in March the tensions came to bloodshed.
On March 5, 1770 a group of Bostonians were traveling up King's Street. They began to heckle a sentry in front of the town custom house. The heckling began to escalate, colonists began gathering in groups. Then a group of British soldiers came to the defense of the sentry. After that the reports begin to vary.
In depositions taken from the incident, it is clear that a stick or other object was thrown from the crowd knocking down one of the soldiers. Seven different people gave accounts of an object or objects being thrown from the crowd. What makes this even more prevalent was the fact that there were people on both sides of the political divide commenting on the sticks. Edward Gerrish who claimed to start the argument with the sentry said, “Saw some persons with sticks coming up Quaker Lane.”, a man who was obviously anti-British talking about men with sticks. On the other side was Captain Preston himself who claimed, “While I was thus speaking, one of the soldiers, having received a severe blow from a stick.” A woman named Jane Whitehouse who seemed not to have any political affiliation said, “I saw one man take a chunk of wood from under his coat throw it at a soldier and knocked him down.”
The best evidence of the order to fire not being given is the fact that the shots were not fired at once. Muskets were not as accurate as the later rifling guns. Because of this it was normal military behavior to fire all the guns at once. The famous engraving by Paul Revere showed all the soldiers firing their weapons at once on the command to fire. Revere not being there this is probably how he imagines the event. According to the depositions, as many as five people recall hearing one shot after another before more shots started firing. “Half a minute after first gun to second, same to third.” said Ebenezer Hinkley. Robert Goodall said, “They all fired one after another.” It seems clear that they had not fired all at once the way it was known to occur with the old style muskets.
The thought that the British soldiers randomly fired on and murdered innocent civilians is probably from the way leaders of the revolution used the event. Those leaders got anti-British sentiments whipped into a frenzy. After a few years the colonist got the revolution they wanted, and the Boston Massacre was one of the major reasons for it. In 1775, a month before the battle of Lexington, a ceremony was held at the location of the Boston Massacre. At the ceremony Joseph Warren said, “Take heed, ye infant babes, lest, whilst your streaming eyes fixed on the ghastly corpse, your feet slide on the stones bespattered with your father's brains.”
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