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Speaker 1: Hi um Eve's Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that reveals a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: day by day. Today is March fiveteen. The day was

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Speaker 1: March five, seventy. British troops were occupying Boston, Massachusetts, in

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Speaker 1: an effort to enforce Britain's tax laws, which American colonists

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Speaker 1: were not fans of, so tensions were already high in

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Speaker 1: the city. But on this snowy night in Boston, the

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Speaker 1: conflict escalated as a street brawl turned into a bloody

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Speaker 1: fight between British soldiers and American colonists. Several people died

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Speaker 1: and more were injured. The battle, which came to be

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Speaker 1: known as the Boston Massacre, gave colonists even more of

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Speaker 1: a reason to oppose British rule and was one of

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Speaker 1: the first steps towards the American Revolution. At the time,

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Speaker 1: no taxation without representation was a guiding sentiment for the

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Speaker 1: American colonists, who weren't happy with being taxed by a

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Speaker 1: parliament that lacked American representation. The colonists also were not

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Speaker 1: cool with taxes whose point was to raise money rather

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Speaker 1: than regulate commerce. So in seventeen sixty five, when Parliament

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Speaker 1: passed the Stamp Act to impose attacks on all paper

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Speaker 1: documents in the colonies. The colonists responded with violence. Parliament

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Speaker 1: ended up repealing the Stamp Act in seventeen sixty six,

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Speaker 1: but it also issued a declaratory Act that said it

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Speaker 1: had the authority to pass any colonial legislation it wanted

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Speaker 1: to and the colonies had to cooperate. Clearly, British Parliament

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Speaker 1: hadn't learned its lesson. That was made exceedingly clear when

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Speaker 1: Britain passed the Townsend Acts in seventeen sixty seven. The

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Speaker 1: Acts imposed duties on British china, glass, lead, paint, paper,

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Speaker 1: and tea imported to the colonies. So in response to

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Speaker 1: the new tax policies, American colonists began protesting and boycotting

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Speaker 1: British goods. Patriot colonists, who opposed the taxes and objected

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Speaker 1: to British rule even vandalized stores that sold British goods

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Speaker 1: and intimidated their merchants and customers. Since conditions in Boston

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Speaker 1: were getting out of control, Britain decided to send troops

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Speaker 1: to the city to restore order, and the Red Coats

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Speaker 1: or British foot soldiers began arriving in Boston on October one,

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Speaker 1: seventeen sixty eight. The soldiers overwhelmed the city, numbering more

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Speaker 1: than two thousand by seven teen sixty nine, among just

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Speaker 1: sixteen thousand Boston residents. Never known for being submissive or quiet,

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Speaker 1: patriots often got into scuffles with the occupying soldiers. Patriots

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Speaker 1: even got into fights with loyalists or American colonists who

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Speaker 1: were loyal to the British crown. On February seventeen seventy,

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Speaker 1: patriots attacked a loyalist store. A customs officer tried to

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Speaker 1: shut down the commotion by firing his gun, and he

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Speaker 1: ended up killing an eleven year old boy. And on

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Speaker 1: March two and third, British troops and a group of

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Speaker 1: Boston wropemakers went toe to toe with each other. Words

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Speaker 1: spread that the British Red Coats wanted to duke it

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Speaker 1: out with the colonist and that the colonists wanted to

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Speaker 1: fight the soldiers. This was the level of hostility in

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Speaker 1: Boston when fights broke out on March five, seventeen seventy.

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Speaker 1: That evening, a wigmakers, a prentice named Edward Garrick, yelled

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Speaker 1: at British Captain John Goldfinch, saying Goldfinch had it paid

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Speaker 1: for his wig. Goldfinch ignored Garrick, but British private Hugh White,

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Speaker 1: who had been on duty near the customs house on

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Speaker 1: King Street, butt an end to defend Goldfinch. White said

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Speaker 1: that Goldfinch was an honorable man who would always pay

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Speaker 1: his debts, but Garrick wasn't hearing it and kept hurling insults.

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Speaker 1: So White hit Garrick in the head with his musket,

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Speaker 1: knocking him down. Bystanders rushed to Garrick's aid, throwing snowballs,

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Speaker 1: and as more people joined the fight, violence escalated. White

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Speaker 1: took cover at the custom house and loaded his weapon.

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Speaker 1: British Captain Thomas Preston and seven soldiers ventured into the brawl,

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Speaker 1: which was hundreds of people strong. They set up in

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Speaker 1: a semicircle with their bayonets out. The mob kept throwing

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Speaker 1: objects at the soldiers. Preston ordered the soldiers not to fire,

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Speaker 1: but as a man named Crispus Attics grabbed Soldier Hu

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Speaker 1: Montgomery's bayonet, Montgomery fell fired his musket and told others

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Speaker 1: to fire too. Attics was shot and died colonists. Samuel

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Speaker 1: Gray also died at the scene. Sailor James Caldwell was

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Speaker 1: also killed. Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr later died from

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Speaker 1: their wounds. Six others were injured. Boston and neighboring towns

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Speaker 1: that were already full of tension, erupted with fury. Over

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Speaker 1: the next few weeks, competing narratives of the Boston massacre emerged.

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Speaker 1: The British soldiers who were involved in the shootings did

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Speaker 1: go to trial, but Captain Preston was found not guilty,

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Speaker 1: and six of the soldiers were acquitted because it was

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Speaker 1: found they had acted in defense. The two other soldiers

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Speaker 1: were found guilty of manslaughter. But even after the trials

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Speaker 1: were over, the effects of the shootings resounded and the

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Speaker 1: growing calls for American independence. I'm Eve Stephcote and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to learn more about the

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Speaker 1: Boston Massacre, listen to the episode of Stuff you Missed

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Speaker 1: in History class called the Boston Massacre. And if you're

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Speaker 1: so inclined, you can follow us at T D I

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Speaker 1: h C Podcasts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Thank you

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Speaker 1: for joining me today. See you same place, same time tomorrow.