Trouble in Boston• Objective: I can develop a timeline of the critical events

leading to the outbreak of the American Revolution.

• Preview: Answer: Why do you think Boston was such a

hotspot for conflict during this time period?

• Process: Guided Notes

• On Your Own: John Adams and An Account of a Late

Military Massacre Reading

Trouble in

Boston

Boston Massacre

Boston had become the center of protest.

The Boston Massacre was a street fight—a snow ball fight gone wrong that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers.

Crispus Attucks

Captain Thomas Preston

Five colonists were killed, the first of which was a sailor by the name of Crispus Attucks, a mullato (African American and Native American mix) who took two bullets to the chest.

Painting by Alonzo Chappel

This led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the anger of the citizenry. Dubbed the Boston Massacre in effort to stir anti-British sentiment (mmm the smell of propaganda!).

Why is this a form of propaganda?

• A town meeting was called demanding the removal of the British and the trial of Captain Preston and his men for murder.

• At the trial, John Adams and Josiah Quincy II defended the British, leading to their acquittal and release. Later, two of the British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter.

• The Boston Massacre was a signal event leading to the Revolutionary War. It led directly to the Royal Governor evacuating the occupying army from the town of Boston. The Townshend Acts were repealed except for the tax on tea!

• During the uneasy calm that followed Samuel Adams (yes, the beer guy) established committees of correspondence where the colonial assemblies—representatives from the 13 colonies—would maintain a flow of communication about threats to American liberties and inform one another of the activities/events occurring throughout the colonies.

• Remember, no telephone, no computers just pen, paper, and horses. Their main goal was to help unify the colonies by expressing their grievances with the British government.

Sons of Liberty

Samuel Adams

In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act granting the British East India Company a monopoly of the colonial tea market, and actually lowered the price of tea, making it cheaper than smuggled tea. The British had a stupid amount of tea to get rid of, nearly 15 million pounds in warehouses in Britain. However, the colonists boycotted British tea on principle.

Modern day Boston

Massacre site…