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| Blacksmith's Tale of Boston
Massacre Discovered by Qais H |
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1770 March 4
To My Dearest Father,
Hello, how are you? I am fine. Right now I am working in a
blacksmith shop in Boston, Massachusetts. The weather is rainy
and cold. As an apprentice, I am in charge of all the tools,
including pumping the fire. If my master asks me to bring
tools when he is working on a certain object, I have to bring him the
correct tool. The tools I use are the hammer to hit the hot iron
and to shape the metal, and the anvil’ which is used to hammer.
We are always working on making fences, horseshoes, knives and
swords. I really like my job because I help other people.
My job makes people happy because we make the tools that they need for
cooking, protection, and traveling. My master is a happy and very great
man. He has a son, but he isn’t working with us because he is too
young. My master’s wife cooks for us and brings us food every
afternoon. We work from when the sun comes up until it goes down.
I am the person who opens the shop and gets everything ready until my
master arrives. Right now I am living with my master and I am not
allowed to have a birthday or talk about my culture. I am Irish
and my master is a British colonist. He is a Patriot, and he
feels the same as the other Patriots. The King of England is
taxing the colonists without representation and this is making everyone
feel really angry. The King taxes the colonists because England needs
money to pay debts. Everyone is feeling agitated because of
what King George is doing to the Patriots. All of this makes me
feel sad because all of my friends are upset.
They work all day long and then they lose some of it to taxes. We can
pay the tax but the problem is that. We need a representative that can
talk to the King and let him know that he can tax us on certain things,
but we need to choose our representative.I hope you know what I am
doing here in Boston, MA. I am working hard every day and I am
doing fine. Dearest father, you don’t have to feel sad for
me. I am living with a great family and they take care of me.
Sincerely,
Your son Sam
1770 March 5th
To My Dearest Mother
Today I opened the shop at 5:30 am. I got everything ready for my
master for when he arrives at the shop. We went straight to work
because we had a lot of things to work on. We owed farmers their
horseshoes. We had to make hundreds of them and they needed them fast.
When master came he was not feeling good. I had to do some of the work.
When people came to the shop they were talking about Patriots and how
they are treating the British soldiers. They were calling the British
names and talking behind their backs, because they were annoying us. At
night the soldiers, drummed loudly and sang, because when they arrived
we had to give them quarters to the soldiers. Since we said no to them,
they went to Boston Common because that was the biggest area that was
empty for them to use.
I am not like other people throwing snow balls, or rocks at them or
calling them names or harassing the soldiers. When my master’s wife
brought us food in the afternoon we sat and ate together. My master
left the shop at later but I stayed for awhile to clean up. I was there
for an hour or two. When I left the shop, closed everything and started
walking, I got close to the Town House and I saw a large mob.
The Town House was croweded with people who were talking at the back of
the crowd. I heard that a British soldier beat up a young lad. The
large group was yelling at the British soldier and he was alone but he
called for help. The troops were close to the Town House. When they
arrived people started ringing the church bells. They were yelling
fire. But the troops were professionals. They didn’t have permission to
shoot anyone, If their captain gave them the permission, then they
could shoot.
On the night of the massacre on King Street the troops arrived in front
of the Town House. They were panicked by the people because everyone
was throwing objects at them like rocks, and snowballs. I even saw
someone that brought a sword with them. People were going too far and
they were getting worse then they deserved. The soldiers panicked and
everyone was yelling fire. Someone threw an object at one of the
soldiers and he shot at the mob. He did that because someone hit him
with a stick. The gun went off at the mob and killed Crispus Attvucks.
When he got shot people started to go forward.
Hugh Montgomery shot at the mob. All of the British soldiers got
panicked and shot and killed five Bostonian citizens. I was there and
when that happened I was felt very sad because one of the people who
died was my friend. He was Irish, a very great man, very happy, and had
a good personality. But on that day he went too far and he got worse
then he deserved. I feel really bad and very angry about what happened
to him. It just shocked me that I lost a very good friend. He was a man
who was working for his family, and paying the rent. Since he died, I
have been worrying about his family and what is going to happen to
them. How are they going to pay the rent and to buy food?
With much love,
Your son Sam
1770 March 12th
To My Dearest Father,
The Boston Massacre was a very bad night for the people of
Boston. They heard the church bells and left their houses with buckets
and other emergency items because they thought that there was a
fire. But when they came to the Town House they saw that there
wasn’t any fire. One of the five people that died at the massacre
was Mr. Samuel Gray, who got killed on the spot by a bullet entering
his head. Crispus Attucks was a mulatto who died at the
Massacre. He got hit by two bullets in his chest. Samuel Maverick
was seventeen years old when he died. All of those people who died were
not heroes or famous, but they are men just like me. It makes me
feel sad and angry about what happened to these men and to their
families.
After the Boston Massacre,s Samuel Adams organized the funeral. Master
and I had to go to Fanueil Hall for the funeral. When we got out of
Fanueil Hall, the streets were croweded with hundreds and hundreds of
people. Well, it was hard for me because I am short and it was
very hard for me to look up or walk. The streets where 3 rows deep with
people and very crowded.
On the funeral day all the soldiers where removed from Boston and
sent to Castle Island and then from there back to England. Everyone was
saying that the King is back in England why is he taxing us? King
George owed people money so he tried to get the money from us. I
think it would work only if we could choose a representative. We can
pay the tax but since he was taxing us without representation, all the
Colonists got angry, so angry that we decided to boycott the taxes and
products. All of this mess led to the horrible massacre, and now the
funeral has caused even more problems.
Personally, I have a lot of emotions. I am wondering if
this mess will go to a war? I am very scared that something is going to
happen to my friends and to my master’s family. I care about my family
and master’s family because now they are like part of my family. I eat,
sleep, play, work, and do everything at that house, so they are part of
my family. Now I worry about both of my families.
Sincerely,
Your loving son
Sam
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Historical
References:
Colonial williamsburg,4/23/06
http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/trades/tradebla.cfm, 4/23/06
Hakim,Joy. A History of U.S
from the Colonies to Country. Library of
congress: Joy Hakim, 4/26,06
Hamilton kimberly, 4/30/06 http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/ch2_p2.htm
Daily life in 1621,april 6.<http://teacher.scholastie,com/than
saving/plinouth/daily.hltm
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