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KF5JRV > TODAY 05.03.25 12:24l 16 Lines 2170 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 5329_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 05
Path: IZ3LSV<DB0ERF<DK0WUE<PD0LPM<VE3CGR<WW4BSA<N3HYM<N3IP<KA3VSP<WB4WPF<
KF5JRV
Sent: 250305/1007Z 5329@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.23
On the cold, snowy night of March 5, 1770, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation.
British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the Customs House, ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the British regulars, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit, leading him to discharge his rifle at the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dyingâ€öCrispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick and James Caldwellâ€öand three more were injured. Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, an African American, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.
The British soldiers were put on trial, and patriots John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support of the colonial justice system. When the trial ended in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded with an “M” for murder as punishment.
The Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group formed in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act, advertised the “Boston Massacre” as a battle for American liberty and just cause for the removal of British troops from Boston. Patriot Paul Revere made a provocative engraving of the incident, depicting the British soldiers lining up like an organized army to suppress an idealized representation of the colonist uprising. Copies of the engraving were distributed throughout the colonies and helped reinforce negative American sentiments about British rule.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
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