The Boston Massacre: The Cause Of The American Revolution

A few years before this, many incidents occurred which prodded colonists to rise up against the tyrannical British Parliament, one of such events was the event known as the Boston Massacre. This event occurred on March 5, 1770. A squad of British soldiers, come to support a sentry who was being pressed by a heckling, snowballing crowd, let loose a volley of shots. Three persons were killed immediately and two died later of their wounds. The British officer in charge, Capt. Thomas Preston was arrested for manslaughter, along with eight of his men; all were later acquitted. This horrendous event assisted in unifying the colonies with one goal: to end the tyrannical reign of the British Parliament and its violation of basic, essential human rights that no man, government, or group had any right to infringe upon. The Boston Massacre sparked the colonists’ desire for independence for all Americans. This desire was the main factor in the birth of the American Revolutionary War, and subsequently the United States of America. The American Revolution officially began on April 19th of 1775, and officially ended on September 3, 1783. What really kicked off the Revolution were skirmishes between British troops and Colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord. As mentioned before, Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by
This shot is traditionally called “The Shot Heard Round the World,” a phrase from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn.” Although historically, no single shot can be definitely cited as the first shot of the battle or the war, this shot is traditionally considered the first shot of the American Revolutionary War. The question of the point of origin of the Revolutionary War has been debated between the towns of Lexington and Concord and their partisans since at least