What transpired on that day was "patriots" and British soldiers got into an altercation. The city of Boston was an epicenter of unhappiness with Parliament and how the colonies were being governed. Prior to the scuffle, the colonists were being taxed on commodities such as sugar and stamps and this time, they were being enforced. These, and other taxes, were put in place because the British government felt that the colonists should help pay for the Seven Years War, or the French and Indian War as it was called in the colonies.
The "Massacre" started because some patriots were shouting at soldiers and started throwing snowballs at them. Without any official orders, the soldiers moved into the crowd and fired. They killed three civilians and injured others. One of the civilians killed was Crispus Attuks. He was leading the Patriots in their scuffle with the soldiers and was the first killed. Attuks was an African American and is considered to be the first casualty of the American Revolution.
The event was widely discussed and disseminated in the forms of images for propaganda use.
(Headstone of the victims of the Boston Massacre)
(Site of the Boston Massacre)
(The Boston Massacre took place outside of this building, the Old State House, or at the time, it was the Massachusetts General Court)
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