波士顿大屠杀

介绍

As the nonimportation movement falters in January and February of 1770, some Bostonians take it upon themselves to discourage merchants from selling British goods. Importers' stores are vandalized and customers bullied. 2月22日, eleven-year-old Christopher Seider is slain as irate customs informer Ebenezer Richardson fires into a crowd. 爱国者确保赛德成为 年轻的烈士 在反对进口关税的战争中.

到1770年冬天, civilians are clashing more and more frequently with the soldiers of the Fourteenth and Twenty-ninth Regiments, 最后一支留在波士顿的军队. (Other regiments had been previously relocated.) After a series of clashes between soldiers and workers at John Gray's ropewalks during the weekend of 2 March, Bostonians are predicting additional trouble. 3月5日晚, a lone sentry posted in front of the Customs House is hassled by a group of young men. 随着人群的膨胀, Captain Thomas Preston 引领s seven soldiers from the Twenty-ninth Regiment to reinforce the sentry, but he cannot persuade the crowd to disperse. 在嘈杂和混乱中, shots are fired; three civilians are killed and two more are mortally wounded. 在事件发生后的几个小时内, 普雷斯顿上尉和他的手下在监狱里, and townspeople are demanding that the troops be removed from Boston. 报纸争相报道…的消息 动荡的一周 它的顶点事件.

Tories and patriots immediately blame each other for the confrontation, and both sides begin collecting depositions to support their points of view. 的 保守党先罢工, and their account and depositions are sent to England on 16 March. Not content to let military officials talk for him, 普雷斯顿直言不讳 从他的牢房里. Patriot 引领ers, meanwhile, stage their own propaganda attack. A town-appointed committee drafts a narrative implying that the incident was the result of 险恶的阴谋. Paul Revere markets an engraving that vividly depicts 血腥的屠杀，而另一些人则纪念 “悲惨的场景 节.

Patriot 引领ers call for an immediate trial, but 副州长托马斯·哈钦森, 知道市民的要求 以眼还眼, hopes to push the trials into the summer. 的 trials are ultimately delayed until fall, 但在这中间的几个月里, Richardson is tried in the death of young Seider and found guilty of murder.

约翰·亚当斯，小罗伯特·奥奇穆蒂.和小乔赛亚·昆西. are retained to defend Preston and his men. Robert Treat Paine and Samuel Quincy (brother of Josiah) will prosecute. 副州长托马斯·哈钦森, also chief justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, 拒绝主持审判. 本杰明·林德接替了他的位置. Preston's trial opens on 24 October 1770, and a few days later the jury reaches 出人意料的判决:无罪. Preston's men are tried separately beginning 27 November 1770. 亚当斯准备 复杂的防御, and six of the soldiers are found not guilty; two others are found guilty of manslaughter but escape the death penalty.

Quiet settles over Boston following the trials. 笔名"Vindex "," Samuel Adams attempts to retry Preston and the soldiers through a series of newspaper articles, but his writings fail to rouse public sentiment as he had hoped. Adams does succeed in turning 5 March into a day of mourning, and commemorative orations are delivered in Boston each year through 1784. Years later, John Adams looks back at the events of 1770, believing that 正义占了上风.