It’s 1763 and the seven years’ war, quoted by Winston Churchill as “the First World War”, has ended. “Due to the costly war Great Britain’s national debt doubled from £75,000,000 to £133,000,000”(Tax History Project). To pay off their debt Britain turned to the American colonies to pay taxes. The tax acts included the Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Quartering Act (1765), and the Townshend Act (1767). Although angry because of the many taxes placed upon them, the colonists were especially upset with taxation without representation. While colonists were obliged to pay the taxes, they didn’t have any elected officials representing them in the British Parliament. Throughout the next decade patriotism and unity will drive events that’ll increase the drive for independence from Great Britain. “On June 39, 1767 British …show more content…
Parliament passes the Townshend Act- tax on products imported into the colonies which included the tax on glass, lead, paper, and paint”( A Timeline of the American Revolution from 1763 - 1787). With the act in place, indignation against the British was spreading among the colonists. “Later, on October 1, 1768, British troops, redcoats, arrived in Boston in attempt to maintain order. To their astonishment the redcoats found the colonists with the control of power which prevented them to carry out their duties” (Boston Massacre Historical Society). About three years after the British tried to maintain control over the colonies, an event would occur that will propel the movement toward independence. “On March 5, 1770 the Twenty-Ninth Regiment, led by Captain Thomas Preston, came to the relief of the Eighth at the Customs House on King Street. The regiment were met by a large crowd of civilians who were taunting and harassing them. With loud commotion coming from the crowd Preston ordered his troops not to fire. It is probable that Preston’s soldiers didn’t hear his command and shot into the crowd killing a total of five men- three men instantly and two died later”( Boston Massacre Historical Society). While the British saw the event in this perspective, the American patriots saw the event as how it was explained in the Boston Gazette on March 12, 1770: “The troops pushed their way through the streets, dispersing the crowd to reach the custom house. Upon orders from Captain Preston, the soldiers shot into the crowd killing five men” (Boston Massacre Historical Society). The outcome of the Boston Massacre was that it acted as a catalyst for Revolution.
Paul Revere, American Patriot, took the chance to use the Boston Massacre as a tool of propaganda. One of Revere’s most famous pieces is The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street. The painting is thought to show the bloody event. As a patriot who supported independence, Revere put many changes/twists in his painting to entice his audience that Independence from Great Britain was the right move. His propaganda included the color of the redcoats matching the colonists spewed blood and the daylight sky when the actual event took place after 9:00pm on a cold winter night. The Engraving also stated a poem by Paul Revere himself. In his poem he depicted the British as “fierce barbarians grinning o'er their prey, Approve the carnage and enjoy the day” (Boston Massacre Historical Society). It is agreed that Paul Revere ignored the truth of the event that the result of the deaths were because of the colonist’s disruptive manner or actions. Paul Revere chose to ignore the truth and spread his propaganda to influence that independence from Great Britain was
needed. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a massacre is considered as “the act of killing many people who are usually helpless or resisting human beings” (Massacre). Today many Historians and Researchers question if the event has deserved its name-The Boston Massacre. Although five men were killed because of the confrontation, the crowd of colonists weren’t defenseless. The Boston Massacre Trials: An Account, authored by Doug Linder, explains that “the colonists threw many objects such as snowballs, clubs, and sticks at the soldiers” (An Account of the Boston Massacre of 1770 and Subsequent Trials). While in today’s terms a massacre resembles a line of murders of about ten or more people, in the late 1700’s a massacre might have been considered with multiple deaths. The term “Massacre” is widely believed to be much used by the patriots to exaggerate the need for independence. From close analysis of the Boston Massacre, I believe that the colonists’ unruly behavior led them to the fatal confrontation. My belief comes from the evidence that Paul Revere and other patriots took advantage of the event and spread their false depictions along the East Coast. Although the term “Massacre” was used, I do not feel that it correctly connects with the event when the colonists weren’t defenseless as described in the Merriam-Webster definition of “Massacre”. History has proven to me that history is like an argument, which has two different sides with different perspectives. A good Historian must take into account both perspectives of an event-in this case the British and Patriot’s perspectives. A good historian also can’t jump to conclusions with an old artifact since it could have been altered or sidetracked to cover up history- in this case Paul Revere’s The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street.
I will be discussing the differences between Captain Thomas Preston’s Account of the Boston Massacre (1770) and Paul Revere, Image of The Bloody Massacre (1770). I will explain both men’s story beginning with Captain Thomas Preston vision of the event, then explain Paul Revere version of the event. I will then include my opinion on which account I believe is most accurate and explain why.
The book began with Paul Revere’s America. Paul Revere’s real name was Apollos Riviore. Paul Reveres name was later changed because of it being too hard to pronounce. He was born on the small island of Guernsey in the English channels but at age 12, he sailed to Boston on November 15, 1715. By 1722, he was a goldsmith in Boston. In 1729, Paul Revere married a named Deborah Hitchborn. He worked as an artisan and a silversmith. During this time, he was known to have amazing skills in both jobs. One of Paul Revere’s best designs was his print of the Boston Massacre in 1770. It helped to create an image of British tyranny and American virtue that still shapes memory of the massacre.
In 1763 the Seven Years’ War ended with the British Empire emerging as victors. The victory came at great cost to Great Britain’s economy. The national debt almost doubled from 75 million pounds to 133 million pounds between 1755 and 1763. Given that Britain fought in North America to uphold the security of her colonial possessions, British ministers deemed it fair that the cost of the war should be shared with the colonies. Subsequently, import duties on popular goods were raised and a number of Acts regarding excise taxes were passed. These included the Sugar Act of 1764, the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties beginning in 1767. The consequences of these actions were to place great financial burdens on the North American colonists, but more importantly, to
When we hear about the Revolutionary War, one of the most popular phrases to be tied to it is “no taxation without representation,” and was coined from the fact that the colonies were being directly taxed without democratic representation. The fact that the American people did not have representation in Parliament while being taxed was virtually universally disapproved and was an extremely big factor in driving the American people to protect their democratic ideals through war in the years prior to the revolution.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
After the French and Indian War ended in 1763, Great Britain had nearly gone bankrupt paying for the war. The British thought it was only logical to start new taxes against the colonists. After all, to the British, they had fought the war in the name of the colonies and in what they believed was in their best interest. Many different types of taxes came and went to help pay for the debt. Over time, the
Paul Revere was born on New Year’s Day of 1735 in Boston, Massachusetts. Paul Revere was a master silversmith in Boston and was well known for his work. Revere is most well-known for his “midnight ride” to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British troops were coming to Lexington in 1775. Revere is also known for his propaganda sketch of Boston Massacre of 1770 that helped rally the colonist behind the Revolution. Paul Revere is a great example of an ordinary man that becomes a politically involved and is symbolically represents the American Revolution as the start of changing history.
...n, was in sight and dividing themselves into a battlefield formation as they came upon Lexington Green. What happened next is still debated. A shot was fired, and neither side would claim responsibility for this first act of war. But when it was over, two massive British volleys had been fired, answered by only one, weak volley of American musket fire and eight militiamen were dead and ten wounded, including Captain Parker. But this was only the start of the Revolutionary War. In the years to come, many Americans and British soldiers would die in their battle to stand up for a country and a future that they believed in. As for Paul Revere, his role in calling the patriots, the minutemen, the militia of the countryside together and up in arms will remain as imperative to the study of American history as any battle or shot that took place in the Revolution of America.
Taxes had been rising for the colonies for years prior 1765. It was not appreciated but the colonists tolerated it. Those tax acts included the Townshend Act. That is, until the spring of 1765 when British Parliament passed the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required a tax to be put on all paper goods. This included all ship papers, legal documents, licenses, and newspapers. It was considered a small tax in cost but the reaction of the colonist was nothing but offended. All the things that the colonist used to develop and have their daily lives separate from British government was now being taxed. Although the act was not passed until November of 1765, the colonists already felt victimized by the Stamp Act and the discrimination from Great Britain. These emotions and reactions quickly followed as motivation to do something again the act. The same can be said for how the Sons of Liberty was started.
After the French and Indian War, the British government decided to make the American colonies pay a large share of the war debt with new taxes that they issued. The English ...
In the 1770’s the American colonists were being taxed too much by the British and they started to want their independence. Britain was taxing the colonists to pay their debts from the French and Indian War. The colonists started to fight back by tarring and feathering some tax collectors. Britain sent troops to the colonies which caused more problems.
After the Great War for Empire, the British parliament began carrying out taxes on the colonists to help pay for the war. It was not long from the war that salutary neglect was brought on the colonies for an amount of time that gave the colonists a sense of independence and identity. A farmer had even wrote once: “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world” (Doc H). They recognized themselves as different than the British, so when parliament began passing bills to tax without representation there was an outcry of mistreatment. Edmund Burke, a man from parliament, sympathized with the colonists: “Govern America as you govern an English town which happens not to be represented in Parl...
The events of March 5, 1770 should and have been remembered as momentous and predictable. Perhaps not the night or city specifically, but the state of affairs in Boston, if not throughout The English Colonies, had declined to the point that British troops found themselves frequently assaulted with stones, dirt, and human feces. The opinions and sentiments of either side were certainly not clandestine. Even though two spectators express clear culpability for the opposing side, they do so only in alteration of detail. The particulars of the event unfold the same nonetheless. The happening at the Custom House off King Street was a catastrophic inevitability. Documents from the Boston Massacre trial, which aid us in observing from totally different perceptions. The depositions of witnesses of the event prove to be useful; an English officer Captain Preston and a colonial Robert Goddard give relatively dissimilar details. In spite of these differences, they still both describe the same state of affairs.
The war had been enormously expensive, and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to help cover these expenses resulted in chaos. English leaders, were not satisfied with the financial and military help they had received from the colonists during the war. In a desperate attempt to gain control over the colonies as well as the additional revenue to pay off the war debt, Britain began to force taxes on the colonies. Which resulted in The Stamp Act, passed by parliament and signed by the king in March 1765. The Stamp Act created an excise tax on legal documents, custom papers, newspapers, almanacs, college diplomas, playing cards, and even dice. Obviously the colonist resented the Stamp Act and the assumption that parliament could tax them whenever and however they could without their direct representation in parliament. Most colonials believed that taxation without their consent was a violation of their constitutional rights as Englishmen. Which is where the slogan “No Taxation without Representation” comes
The Boston Massacre was a fundamental event at the beginning of the American Revolution. The massacre became part of anti-British propaganda for Boston activists and fed American fears of the English military in both the North and South. The Boston Massacre was the first “battle” in the Revolutionary War. Although it wasn’t until five years after the Boston Massacre that the Revolutionary War officially began, the Boston Massacre was a forecast of the violent storm to come.