The momentum of rebellion had reached a tipping point.
Beginning in the mid-1760s, American colonists were forced to pay taxes, but didn't have representation in Parliament. The British started limiting imports, deciding which countries could do business with America. And the colonists were sick of British policies that allowed warrantless search and seizure.
Early on the evening of March 5, 1770, ongoing frustration with Britain reached a peak in Boston after a quarrel between a young American boy and a British sentry. As colonists gathered to support the boy, redcoats fired, killing five civilians. But is it that simple: The British were bad, the colonists innocent victims? That's one question the Bostonian Society intends to ask this week during a series of events to commemorate the Boston Massacre.
"Often what people are left with, when they come away from this story, was that these British soldiers were very aggressive," said Samantha Nelson of the Bostonian Society. "But when you actually start looking up the incident itself, it's much more complex. Of course, that's not what you hear in a fifth-grade social-studies class."
On Saturday, children will be led in a reenactment of the massacre outside the Old State House. "It's important. Historical events are complex and layered; even political events happening today are," Nelson said. "And the kids get to throw Styrofoam snowballs. It's fun and it's cute."
The children will be taught that the British were given a fair trial and were acquitted, Nelson said, with noted patriots John Adams and Josiah Quincy as their lawyers.
On Tuesday, the 238th anniversary of the massacre, nine students from a junior history class at Boston Latin School will recite distinguished orations on the meaning of the massacre at Old South Meeting House.
MARC LAROCQUE
