Boston Massacre Timeline
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Heavy tax duties laid by the British did not go down well with the colonists. They were forced to pay large amounts of taxes for imported products like tea, sugar, paper, lead paint, etc. This was popularly called the Townshend Act. As a mark of protest and opposition, the colonists refused to pay taxes to the British.
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This forced the British Parliament to send soldiers in large numbers as a show of force to pressurize the civilian to pay taxes. The presence of foreign troops on their land was not received well by the locals who started revolting. In addition, the troops were paid very meager amounts of salary. In order to sustain their livelihood, they were willing to do any type of job at extremely less pay. This led to dissension among the locals who were losing their jobs to the soldiers.
On March 5, 1770, Hugh White was positioned to guard the Customs House on King Street. A verbal duel broke out between White and a local merchant. This caused White to react in a fit of rage. He hit the merchant on his head with a musket. The injured merchant immediately called other locals in the surroundings to protest against the “atrocities” being committed against the colonists. A crowd of nearly 300 to 400 gathered in the area. They were jeering and taunting the British soldiers. They even challenged them to attack the crowd. They threw ice, eggs, stones, oyster shells and just about anything they could lay their hands upon. Chaos filled the scene when Private Hugh Montgomery was struck by the crowd. At the same time, someone from the crowd cried “Fire” and the soldiers, understanding it to be a command from the higher ranks fired at the crowd. This resulted in the death of five civilians and was immediately termed a ‘massacre’ by the Bostonians.
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The Boston Massacre resulted in the death of five civilians on March 5, 1770. Although the number of dead was much less to be termed a massacre, the rebels made use of the situation turning the colonists against the British leading to the famous American Revolution that took place many years later.