Wed, Feb 4th

We are moving along a little closer to actual war between the colonists and the British. Today we talked about the Boston Massacre where hostilities between angry colonists and an increasing British troop presence finally boiled over into violence. We reread the section in the textbook on the Boston Massacre on page 123 and took down some "quick facts" on handout #9. When doing Quick Facts simply read the selection and note the important facts about the event. After doing this you should have a good idea of what happened that March night in 1770. Here are some key points: it happened at night, the colonists were taunting the British soldiers and throwing snowballs and ice chunks at them, the incident began with just a few young Bostonians and a couple of British soldiers and escalated from there, 5 people died as a result and 6 were wounded, the first to die was Crispus Attucks who was part African-American and part Native American, the British soldiers and the their captain, Thomas Preston, were not found to be at fault in court after the event.

We then looked at Paul Revere's engraving of the event. This picture is on p. 124 in your book. Yes, Paul Revere, the famous midnight rider to Lexington and Concord was also a Boston silversmith and he was asked by the Sons of Liberty to create a picture of the Boston Massacre. He engraved this picture in silver and it was later distributed around the American colonies. Revere doesn't portray the event exactly like it occurred. You should be able to notice at least 5 things about the picture that doesn't fit with the facts.

The big question is then, why? Revere wanted to make the British look like tyrants and would randomly kill innocent people. Not everyone in the colonies supported the Patriot cause. In fact just as many people were loyalists (33%) as Patriots. Also there was another 33% that were very much undecided as to whether or not to support a move to independence. Revere wanted to influence these people to come to the Patriot cause. You should be able to complete handout #13 and define: Patriots, Loyalists and Tories and also know the percentage of each in colonial America.

We also completed handout #10 which is a notes outline. The bubbles are set in a cause and effect manner. They should go as follows: French and Indian War, British debt and British troops in America (Proclamation of 1763), Taxing on the colonists, Colonists rebel by smuggling, boycotting, harassing tax collectors, writing and organizing (Taxation wo/Representation is tyranny), More and more British troops in America to enforce the laws, More friction and violence with the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party, and Outbreak of War at Lexington and Concord.

Role plays will be conducted tomorrow first thing.