Public Domain. Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
On March 5, 1770, eight British soldiers tried to break up an uncontrollable crowd in the streets of Boston. Five Bostonians were killed. The first to be killed was African-American sailor Crispus Attucks.
Throughout the 1760s, tensions were high in Boston. American colonists, who were helping to build the British Empire through various industries throughout the colonies, resented being heavily taxed with through laws such as Stamp Act and Townshend Act yet having no representation in British Parliament.
By 1770, conflict had reached its peak. Bostonians, angry with the treatment received by a British soldier, erupted into a street scuffle. Attucks, who was described as a "...tall robust man with a dark face" led the Bostonians to confront the British soldiers at the Custom's House. This event was later named the Boston Massacre by Sam Adams.
While all of the victims of the Boston Massacre have been hailed as heroes, Attucks' death served as great inspiration for African-Americans in Massachusetts to petition for the abolish of slavery and equal rights in society.
- Suggested Reading
- American Revolution
- The Boston Massacre
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