Boston Massacre

*Scroll until the very end for a video about the Boston Massacre.
It all started on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. A shot followed another, unbelievably in self-defense from what started as a snow ball attack.

Tensions between the colonists had thrived since King George III started levying taxes with the purpose of raising money. They needed this money because the French and Indian War had left England in debt, and the British coffers were dangerously low. Most people of England were commoners and they didnt have money to give to the government. One of the purposes of the taxes was paying the soldiers who were sent to protect the land, but eventually the soldier's presence began bothering the colonists. The pay of the soldiers was very scarse and they eventually began taking jobs away from the colonists because they needed more money.

On that evening of March 5, 1770, a British soldier, who was guarding near the Customs House was attacked by a crowd of colonists(apparently drunk)with snowballs and sticks, similar objects. The attack primarily started because of a discussion bewtween the soldier and a colonist. Other Bostonians who were backing up the colonists formed the crowd previously described. Runners called Captain Thomas Preston , the officer of the watch. He sent a few soldiers to help the other one control the furious mob. With every minute the situation became more and more stressful.

Reports indicate the angry mob tried to provoke the soldiers to fire, and soon enough one of them did so. This single shot was followed by many others. The scene is imaginable: Shots louder than thunders, whispering and tormenting the ears of all those who were present in the incident. When the firing stopped, 11 Bostonians were injured, and 3 were dead. Other two victims died few days later from the terminal wounds from the shots.
The colonists who were killed were:

1. Crispus Attucks
2. Samuel Gray
3. James Caldwell
4. Samuel Maverick
And
5. Patrick Carr

The governor of that time, Thomas Hutchinson, ordered that 8 of the soldiers involved in the massacre to be arrested. Trials needed to be done in order to determine the fate of the soldiers. James Forest, a merchant of Boston pleaded John Adams, a prominent lawyer of Massachussets to defend the colonists. He understood the trouble that this implied but even though decided to help, because he believed that everyone deserved a defense. He convinced the judges that the soldiers were only acting as one would excpect in such a confusing and life threatening incident. He accomplished that 6 of the soldiers be acquitted and the other 2 were reduced to a charge of manslaughter; and their thumbs were branded so everyone knew they had committed a crime.
So you understand a little bit better how this happened, look at this representation of the Boston Massacre: