Why Did Boston Massacre Happen ?
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Boston witnessed the killing of five innocent colonists in an exchange of fire between the British and the Americans. This was one of the many incidents that triggered the famous American Revolution, that would last for eight years and lead to the ultimate victory of the Americans with the downfall of the British Empire. The events that led to the Boston confrontation have been discussed below.
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When the British ordered that taxes be collected from the colonists, the latter tried abusing and challenging the tax collectors positioned at different places. One such place was the Custom House in King Street. Private Hugh White was on duty on March 5, 1770. He was responsible for providing the much needed security to the building, the tax collectors and the surrounding areas.
The presence of additional solders to monitor the area in case of a face off did not go down well with the locals. Confrontations and verbal exchanges were a common sight for many days in the region. In order to protect themselves, the locals were armed with huge pieces of woods in case of an attack. On that particular evening, Edward Garrick started attacking a British officer, Goldfinch verbally. Although Goldfinch did not reply and continued to ignore the insults being thrown at him, Garrick managed to attract a large number of supporters, nearly 400 of them and continued his assault. White tried to bring the situation under control but to no avail. He called his soldiers to control the crowd. This led to the killing of five civilians and injuring one soldier.
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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.