The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770 and was a catalyst to a large number of changes within the colonies as well as the American Revolution. One question that is often brought up is who is to blame for the actual occurrence? However, there is no question because the British are obviously to blame for the entirety of the event.

Probably one of the most important reasons why the British are to blame for the Boston Massacre is their unnecessary behavior. The British Troops killed or wounded American citizens unexpectedly and irrationally (Doc B). This account of events is consistent throughout many other documents, and is the horrible truth. The Americans simply taunted a few of the soldiers who were already out of line. The throwing of rocks and calling of names is not a valid reason to kill. Placing British Troops in a major city is simply bound to result in problems, especially when they often times would abuse the citizens verbally and physically (Doc D). This kind of abuse occurred on both sides , more frequently to the Americans, but the British was the party that ended up killing over it. Throwing rocks and snowballs is nothing compared to the death of five innocent Americans. The male colonists, which all of the victims were, had the right to life as well as liberty (Doc G). What the colonists did was not against any laws, or written documentations. However, the act of killing another man is. Because the British soldiers were stationed in America, they should have followed these same rules and natural rights but did not.

Another highly supported reasons why the British are to blame for the Boston Massacre is similar to the first, but extremely important. The soldiers have no defense because they brought on most of it themselves and in each case the Americans were simply retaliating. On one occasion shortly before the Boston massacre occurred, many soldiers, armed with clubs and other things of the sort, instigated a fight between themselves and the rope makers of Mr. John Gray’s shop (Doc I). This event has little motivation behind it and all it did was bring on the events to come. It was a catalyst of many only agitating the citizens more and more, when all they ended up doing was throwing snowballs. It is true that the citizens gathered, armed with sticks, and taunting the soldiers but only out of frustration, revenge, and self defense. (Doc L). Even in American law today, every citizen has the right to self defense. If the colonists had kept enduring the abuse, only bad things could have happened to the colonies. The Americans did in fact threaten to kill the Troops, however they were armed with only sticks and snowballs white the British were armed with sophisticated weapons and most importantly guns. When the British claimed that