Boston Massacre

About

The Boston Massacre, known in Great Britain as the Incident on King Street, was a confrontation on March 5, 1770, in the prelude to the American Revolution in Boston, in what was then the colony of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

In the confrontation, nine British soldiers shot several in a crowd, estimated between 300 and 400, who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles. Five American colonists were killed. The event was subsequently described as "a massacre" by Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and other leading Patriots who later became central proponents of independence during the American Revolution and Revolutionary War. British troops had been stationed in the Province of Massachusetts Bay since 1768 in order to support Crown-appointed officials and to enforce unpopular legislation implemented by the British Parliament.