Boston Massacre

1. The Social and political climate of Boston during the eve of March 5, 1770.The town's people were under immense pressure and stress from increasing British military occupation. On a political side of things the British had called in more forces to enforce the law because of the increasing rebellious behavior of the people one recent example of that time would be the protestors of the stamp act. One of the more influential rebels of that time now more famous for his beer Samuel Adams had been promoting the other citizens of Boston to be even more untamed in their protests. So the two sides were finding it very hard to interact. With the soldiers coming to Boston and living they needed away to subsidize themselves while there. Needless to say it was hard for them finding work because most shopkeepers were against the British. With the Bostonians outnumbering the brits, the soldiers were regularly harassed by commoners. One situation that helped lead to the escalation of the massacre was when a British sympathizer by the name of Ebenezer Richardson tried to tear an anti British poster down an enraged mob followed him home throwing rocks into his windows. One of the rocks hit Richardson's wife he was immediately enraged and grabbed his musket and fired aimlessly into the mob killing and eleven year old boy. This was one of the escalations leading on to the massacre.

2. A. Who is Thomas Preston?

Thomas Preston is the officer in command of the British soldiers that day.2.B.What are the charges against him? The charge against Preston is murder it is said that Preston gave the order to fire the shots into the crowd. Preston claims that he was asked if he would shoot prior to the incident and he says no, that would not be stately of him. He also says that because the mob were throwing things so fiercely toward the officers they felt that there lives were threatened and that firing would have been a natural reaction to such an act, but even still he gave no order to do so.2.C. Do you believe, why or why not? I believe that the crowd probably was rowdy and out of control with anger at the time but I am reluctant to think Mr. Preston engaged in a conversation so civil with one of the town's people how he would never fire onto the people.3. What witnesses support Preston testimony? The first is Peter Cunningham he says that the Capitan gave no orders to fire, and he is prosecution. Richard palmes in the defense of Preston says that they were struck with snow and that he knows not where the order came from to fire. Newton price a Negro who was probably a slave so he probably did not care for either side so he had no reason to lie. In his testimonies he says he heard no order called to fire only people in the street cry out fire. All the people who I just named were in close proximity to the capitain.4. Choose a testimony that refutes person's statement. Benjamin Burdick outright and totally disagrees with everything that Preston has stated like when Preston says that he was asked will he fire and he said surely not, Burdick claims he said he swears by god that he will. Robert Goddard claims that the captain did say fire right after he was hit with one of the snow balls and then said that firing was what the Bostonians deserved. Isaac pierce said that the Capitan had no remorse for what happened and after replied he did what he had to do. All the people I named were in close proximity other than Pierce, and they all were prosecuting witneses.5. What do you think Preston was wearing? I think he was wearing black. I cannot really get any conclusions from that because some said that the person that called fire was wearing black but most the testimonies say that he did not give the order. 6. How would you characterize the crowd's behavior? There