8th Grade Notes 12/4

Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British soldiers on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of civilian-military tensions that had been growing since royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts.

-Protests by colonists who had approached seven British soldiers. They hurled several objects at the soldiers and dared them to fire. “Fire, you bloody-backs, you lobsters. You dare not fire.”



The colonists called this event the Boston Massacre to stir up emotions and influence to go against the British. Colonists such as Samuel Adams used this event as propaganda. Many colonists also began to boycott.

The British responded by repealing the taxes from the Townshend Acts on everything except for tea.

Tea Act
-1773
The British East India Company had a surplus of tea and Parliament passed this act that allowed the company to ship tea to the colonies without having to pay the normal taxes on tea. Also they skipped over colonial merchants and sold the tea directly to shopkeepers at a low price. Their tea was cheaper than the colonial merchants’ tea.

The colonial merchants are upset because they are losing money and they call for an immediate boycott of British goods.

Boston Tea Party
-The British East India Company had the ships dock in the Boston harbor. When the royal governor ordered the ships to be unloaded. The Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, dressed up as Mohawk Indians and threw 342 boxes of tea into the water. (December 16, 1773)

-Big act of defiance against the British. Word of this spreads throughout of the colonies and the Sons of Liberty are heralded, however, still no one dared to challenge the British for rule.

Intolerable Acts (Quartering Act)
The British pass Coercive Acts in spring 1774. They were very harsh laws for Massachusetts. They wanted to make an example out of Mass (punishing them)
-What were the Coercive Acts or as the colonists called them, The Intolerable Acts?