by Shalini

This paragraph will be about why the colonists were frustrated about housing the British soldiers. The king sent the soldiers to Massachusetts because he thought the patriots were criminals, so he sent them there to make them behave. Whenever the soldiers were off duty they would get drunk, chase people and also disturb people while they were in church on Sundays. The colonists felt very angry about getting forced to feed the soldiers when they did not even have enough food to feed their own family. Sometimes the wife or the husband did not eat dinner but had to give the soldiers their food. The soldiers also felt very angry and abused about what was happening. The problem was the colonists let them eat their food but after that they would do very violent things to the soldiers like hit them. This is one of the many reasons that led to the Boston Massacre.

by Farah

The Boston Massacre was a fight in 1770 between the American patriots and a couple of British soldiers. It all started when the colonists were throwing snowballs and wood at the British soldiers. The colonists yelled and screamed at the red coats. Then, a redcoat thought he heard the command, “Fire!” The other redcoats started to shoot at the colonists. In the end, five colonists were dead or dying. The patriots were furious and responded in anger and sadness. Paul Revere created a famous engraving of the Boston Massacre, but it was propaganda. The British soldiers looked merciless but in real life they did have some regret killing a few colonists.

The British began taxing the colonists to help cover their debt from the French and Indian War. They taxed things like paper in the Stamp Act, and of course in the Tea Act they taxed tea. Some colonists were mad about this; they were patriots. Others thought that it was fine; they were loyalists. Some patriots boycotted the tea. Others, like George Washington, stopped drinking it at all. King George III finally made the cost of the tea so low, that even with the tax, the tea cost was less than that of normal tea. But the patriots didn't want to pay any taxes because they thought it was unfair. It was taxation without representation!

Then one day, three ships docked in Boston Harbor. They were loaded with tea. 342 chests to be exact. Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized a “tea party” to make sure there wasn’t any tea being sold from the three ships. 60 patriot men that called themselves “The Sons of Liberty” disguised themselves as mohawk indians and snuck on board. They dumped the 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. Nothing was harmed onboard but the tea and the captain’s padlock, which got replaced right after the raid.