Revolutionary War

Author's Note: I wrote this piece because I think that it is important to understand how the Boston Massacre affected the war and the way the soon to be Americans thought about the British. I purposely used creative nonfiction because I didn't want to write a report with just facts in it. When I learn about history I put myself in the time or place to understand it more.  I wanted the reader to understand what it was like to feel what was going on. My audience for this piece is others in the Academy, including the teachers, and students. In this piece I am working on transitions.

I was walking with my mother as we went to the center of town to meet up with my father. I saw the soldiers standing at guard as we walked past them. These soldiers were not very welcomed, that I knew. We were about thirty feet away from them when I started hearing yelling. Everyone in the town turned to see a mob throwing stones sticks and whatever they could find. A British officer called in additional soldiers. My mother grabbed my hand and started to walk away slowly just like everyone around us. She then covered my eyes but I could still hear gunshots and cries of pain.  I later found out that I would never see my father again.

The Royal troops were not welcome from the start. To the colonists it seemed as if they were always watched like fish in a fish bowl. But this time they did not only come to watch, they came to enforce a recent heavy tax burden. A mob was then formed around a British sentry who used verbal abuse to make the soldiers mad. Soon  more people joined the mob and then started throwing things. Without orders, the soldiers fired into the crowd.

Five people were killed and six were wounded. Eight soldiers were then arrested for murder. Six of the soldiers were acquitted and the other two were given reduced sentences. This caused a lot more tension with colonists and British. The British took away good people who were fighting for what was right. Most of them had families and jobs that they would never see again. This made the colonists angry and maybe thinking of their chances if they fought back.