|
Colonial Letters
about the Boston Massacre Found!
by Ruiz Rivera |
| |
1770 February 30
To my dearest friend Elizabeth,
Life here in Boston is starting to heat up. I felt pretty bad about the
British soldiers here in Boston at the beginning. People were throwing
things at the soldiers like rocks and snowballs and making fun of them.
They would not even give the British soldiers a place to stay. The
British had to sleep in Boston Common in the winter. I guess you could
say I was a Loyalist back then.
Now I feel quite differently about the British soldiers. They
played their bugles at the most inappropriate times and the British
government passed the Townshend Act. Those Lobsterbacks have no right
to tax us without representation! The British Government is really
making life hard for the Bostonians, so I changed my mind about being a
Loyalist and started supporting the Sons of Liberty.
I am one of the people in Boston that makes life hard for the
British soldiers. A few other people and I threw rocks and snowballs at
the soldiers. I also made fun of them and called them things like
Lobsterback, and Bloodyback. What I really hate is the way the British
government is taxing us without representation and I am quite
determined to keep doing this to the Lobsterbacks until King George
sends those soldiers back to England and repeals the Townshend Act.
Making life hard for the Bloodybacks is part of my everyday life. Most
of the time when I see a British soldier I usually just make fun of
him, but when I see one of them doing something quite inappropriate I
just throw things at them. Once a British soldier came into my
blacksmith shop while I was working on the horseshoe and tried to close
down my business. The Lobsterback knew that I was a strong supporter of
the Sons of Liberty, so that is why he tried to close down my shop. So
I killed him by running him through with a sword from the forge. It was
quite a good thing that there was only one British soldier in the shop,
and there was no one else. I then put his body in a sack, dragged him
to the Charleston River and threw his body there. It was lucky no one
tried to look into the sack or suspected what I was doing. I’ve really
had enough of those Lobsterbacks and I do not feel bad about killing
one of those annoying Bloodybacks. I really hate them!
I hope that life is good there in
Lexington.
Love from your dear friend,
Jack William
1770 March 6
Dear Elizabeth,
Yesterday was the most tragic day so far in Boston’s history. I
woke up in the morning and put on a linen shirt, breeches, a
vest, and an apron. As soon as I was done I went down the ladder and to
the kitchen and ate cornbread and tea for breakfast. Then I went down
to the shop to start making the tool that farmer Ben requested
three days ago. All day long I worked on the rake from sunrise to
sundown.
When I finally finished, I was exhausted. A few minutes later I heard a
knock on the door. It was one of my dearest friends, John Andrews. He
told me that there was a fire outside the Town House. I asked him where
he heard it and he told me that someone he heard yelled “fire” so we
went outside with buckets. When John and I got there we saw that there
was a sentry aided with a few other British soldiers. The crowd was
starting to get quite rowdy and violent. I asked someone what was going
on because I was very confused. He told me that the sentry had knocked
down a few kids with his musket and hurt them. That really got me
vexed! How could a sentry knock down a few kids? John and I and a few
other people in the crowd starting throwing snowballs and rocks and
hitting the soldiers with sticks. That will show those Lobsterbacks not
to hurt a few young people!
I saw a look of panic in some of the soldiers faces, then I heard a
command to fire, probably by the captain, and finally some soldiers
just fired into the crowd. A man named Crispus Attucks was beside me
doing the same thing I was doing when he got shot. By the time the sun
rose the freshly fallen snow was red with blood. I found out that
Crispus Attucks and four other people died in the massacre. The
soldiers were sent to jail after that. I hope those Lobsterbacks are
executed as punishment.
love,
Jack William
1770 December 6
My Dear friend Elizabeth,
The British soldiers that were responsible for the death of the five
people at the Boston Massacre came to trial on 1770, October 24 and
finished on 1770, December 5.
There was an advertisement in the Boston Gazette about the trial for
the British soldiers on the 24th of October. I decided to go to see
what would happen to the Lobsterbacks as soon as I was finished with my
duties. I personally think that the Bloodybacks who fired their muskets
should be found guilty and executed. So I got up and dressed. I went
down to the shop and finished the pot that Mary Jane asked for
yesterday. When I finished the pot and sold it to her for 4 shillings,
I went to the the court where the British soldiers were tried.
The British soldiers were tried before the Superior Court of
Judicature. It is the highest court in Massachusetts. Paul Revere made
a picture about the massacre. Although it was inaccurate the picture
made Bostonians furious and I think it made them vote that some of the
soldiers were guilty.
The soldiers that were accused Captain Thomas Preston, William Wemms,
James Hurtigan, William McCauley, Hugh White, Matthew Killroy, William
Warren, John Carrol, and Hugh Montgomery. Captain Preston was accused
of giving the order to fire. John Adams was one of the lawyers for the
soldiers. It surprised me that he was one of the lawyers when he was
one of the Sons of Liberty. One day I went up to him and asked him why
he was one of the lawyers for the soldiers and he told me that the
British soldiers should get a fair trial. That seemed like a good
reason. The trial lasted for about 45 days and I was not able to go to
every day of the trial and only went to about 5 or 6 but I was able to
get to the last day of the trial and saw the fate of the soldiers.
At the end of the trial two of the soldiers were found guilty. The
soldiers that were found guilty for manslaughter was Killroy and
Montgomery. Their punishment was to face the death penalty but got off
with an M branded on their thumbs because they recited Psalm 51, verse
1. Six of the soldiers were found not guilty. I got quite confused
about the massacre because the witnesses that were called up all had
different stories as to what really happened. The soldiers that were
involved in the Boston massacre were sent out of Boston and went back
to England, and the soldiers that were involved at the massacre but
were not accused were shipped to Castle Island.
Oh, if only there will not be anything tragic that
happens in Boston again.
Sincerely,
Jack William
|
|
Historical References:
Beller, Susan. The Revolutionary War. Tarrytown, New York: Marshall
Cavendish Corporation, 2003.
Mr. Boismer. 18th Century Colonial Trades: The Blacksmith. April 7,
2006 <http://www.esd.k12.ca.us/CadwallderRoom%2020/
Colonial_Trades/Black/Black.html>
Brown,Frances. Cobblestone. Peterborough, NH: Cobblestone Publishing
Company, 1980.
Dempsey, Jock. A Day In The Life of an Apprentice Blacksmith. April 3,
2006<http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/a_day_in.htm.>
Hawkin, Joy. From Colonies to Country. Oxford, NY: Oxford University
Press, 2003
|
|
