The topic I have researched is the dramatic event called "The Boston Massacre." This event occurred on the night of March 5, 1770 at 10:00 PM.
A few months before the event, British "Red Coats" were posted all over Boston because they made sure that the colonists stayed calm. The colonists were not calm because they thought the Stamp Tax was outrageous, and they were doing things like burning down offices to protest the Stamp Tax. The Stamp Tax required that the Colonist had to pay for a stamp on things like dice, playing cards, etc.
Boston people didn't want the British soldiers anywhere within 200 miles of them. So the people of Boston were making fun of the "Red Coats." A few weeks after the British soldiers started settling in the area, a group of people put pebbles in snow balls and threw them at a few "Red Coats." More of the British soldiers came out, and one got hit with a stick. He thought he heard the words, "Open Fire!" and so he fired into the crowd. The rest of the soldiers opened fire and killed five people and injured seven people.
The colonists demanded that the soldiers go to court immediately. The Governor came in and he calmed things down and continued to protect his colony. He sent the soldiers to an isolated place where they could do no harm. He had the soldiers arrested and promised to send them to court. But the trial was postponed until Fall.
John Adams was the lawyer for the British. The trial started on November 27th, 1770. Samuel Quincy was the lawyer for the colonists.
Here are a few quotes from the trial:
Q: (lawyer's question) "Was anything thrown at the soldiers?"
A: (witness' answer) "Yes, there were many things thrown. What they were I cannot say."
Q: (lawyer's question) "What sort of clubs were they?"
A: (witness' answer) "They were cord wood sticks."
Q: (lawyer's question) "How did the soldiers stand?"
A: (witness' answer) "They stood with their pieces before them to defend themselves. A party, about twelve in number with sticks in their hands, who stood in the middle of the street gave three cheers and immediately surrounded the soldiers and struck upon their guns with their sticks and passed along the front of the soldiers toward Royal Exchange Lane striking soldiers' guns as they passed. Numbers were continually coming down the street."
From this passage it's clear that they were both inconsiderate of each other, the colonists harassed the British just as much as the British taxes had harassed the colonists. But the soldiers were defending themselves. The captain and six of the soldiers were found not guilty.
But two soldiers were found guilty. Since they could read, they claimed the "Benefit of Clergy." So they were branded on the thumbs by the civil court which indicated that they couldn't claim the benefit of clergy again if anything like this ever happened to them again.
