Boston Massacre to Intolerable Acts Review

THE BOSTON MASSACRE

1768, 1000 Redcoats (British Soldiers) came to Boston as upon the request of the royal governor of Massachusetts.

Colonists felt the Redcoats were not there to help

March 5 ,1770 a minor dispute broke out between a soldier and some Bostonians, who threw snowballs at him.

More and more citizens came to the scene and formed a mob.

In front of the customs house, where taxes were collected, stones were thrown and some people dared the soldiers to fire.

A few soldiers panicked and did fire, killing five Boston citizens.

The event became known as the BOSTON MASSACRE.

Five victims became heroes of the colonial cause

Notably Crispus Attucks

John Adams, argued that everyone deserved a fair trial, including the soldiers. He defended the soldiers, who were freed on the grounds of self-defense.

BOSTON TEA PARTY

Parliament repealed all the Townshend Acts in 1770, except the tax on tea.

1773, when the British East India company faced financial ruin, Parliament passed the new TEA ACT, giving the company a monopoly on selling tea directly to the colonists and made this tea cheaper than the smuggled tea they were able to buy prior to the Tea Act.

Side note: Many colonists began to drink coffee to replace tea in protest.

December 16, 1773 at midnight, while three ships from the British East India Company were docked in Boston, the SOL, disguised as Native Americans boarded the ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor.

Dubbed the BOSTON TEA PARTY

The colonists attempted to pay back the cost of the tea in exchange for the repeal of the Tea Act.

King George and Parliament had enough and were determined to punish the colony of Massachusetts.

THE INTOLERABLE (COERCIVE) ACTS

King George III said that England either needed to “master” the colonies or “leave them alone”. He picked “master”.

1774- Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, known in the colonies as Intolerable Acts in the colonies because….

▪ Boston Harbor closed until colonists paid the British East India Company for its lost tea. ▪ Town meetings were banned ▪ Massachusetts charter was revoked ▪ Massachusetts was put under control of a new governor, General Thomas Gage ▪ The Quartering Act was reintroduced, forcing colonists to let British soldiers to stay in their homes ▪ Land near the Ohio River Valley was given to Quebec

Goal was to exert control, but the opposite happened.