Who Is To Blame For The Boston Massacre?

This question is quite controversial – who is to be blamed for the massacre of Boston in 1770, March 5th?

Should we blame the soldiers or the protesters?

Here we are trying to show you the contrivances of both sides.

Read it and decide yourself who is really to be blamed for that killing?

Description, On Who To Be Blamed 

On the snowy winter morning of 1770, March 5th, some Bostonians went to King Street protesting against some decisions of the British Parliament.

Mainly they went there to protest for repealing the 5 Townshend Acts of 1767 and to withdraw British troops from the city of Boston.

Probably all would go fine, but due to mobsters’ involvement in the protestors group, their resistance started taking the path of violence.

The crowd went out of control and began attacking the soldiers doing their duty with snowballs, stones, oyster’s shells, and clubs. Captain Thomas Preston led The soldier’s group.

Although, Thomas Preston didn’t order his soldiers to fire on the crowd.

But one soldier from the group suddenly started firing without his captain’s permission.

It encouraged others also to do the same.

The firing killed 3 immediately and wounded 8 people, later 2 died.

Now the question is, whom should we blame?

On one hand, the protestors didn’t do the right thing attacking soldiers that way.

But again, it was not the original protestors, who start attacking the soldiers. The actual attackers were mobs.

So, from this point of view, we can’t directly blame the resistors.

Secondly, the soldiers also didn’t do the right thing attacking the crowd without their captain’s permission; either the British authority already prohibited firing on civilians of the colony via different laws.

The soldiers had violated British law due to firing.

In my opinion, both sides were equally responsible. No side can be blamed alone for that happening.

But whatever happened, it led the whole story to the great American Revolution. That’s why this incident is quite important.

Which Side Benefited From The Boston Massacre?

The American patriots and colonists got the highest benefit from this incident.

But how?

Here is how:

1. First of all, the British Parliament had to partially repeal all the 5 Townshend Acts on 12th April 1770, 37 days later.

2. Secondly, as Bostonians wanted, the English authority also had to withdraw their troops from the city of Boston to Castle Island.

3. The third and most significant benefit revolutionists achieved via the incident transformed the common people’s attitude against the British government and King.

Especially, some leading patriots like Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Adams used the killing as propaganda to influence colonists’ mindset against the British rule.