A Timely Editorial by Reporter Victoria Keng
A standoff began between Private Hugh White and a crowd of angry people who insulted White and threatened him.
At one point, White made the decision to defend himself and struck a person with his weapon. In turn, the people picked up stones and other items to throw at him.
As an alarm was set off, people filled the street and continued to assault White, who eventually signaled for backup.
Captain Thomas Preston responded to White’s cries for help with several soldiers and took a defensive position.
Some of the people dared them to shoot, while others begged them not to shed any blood. The violence escalated into people hitting the soldiers with clubs and sticks.
Reports are unclear as to what happened next, but it is believed a soldier heard the word, “Fire,” and fired his rifle (possibly unintentionally.)
After the initial shot, five soldiers also fired into the crowd.
The first victim was Crispus Attucks, a man of mixed race being half black and half Natick.
Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were also killed during the attack.
Preston and soldiers were arrested and jailed within hours of the attack.
This is known, famously, in the United States of America as the Boston Massacre. It happened the night of March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
Preston and the soldiers were not only given a fair trial but were defended by John Adams himself.
Adams stance on being sure the soldiers were given a fair trial, regardless of their wrongs, is one of the cornerstones of the American Judicial system.
The Revolutionary War, along with the eventual founding of the United States of America, and many rights and freedoms we enjoy, can all be traced back to that snowy night in Boston.
Is this relevant now? History is always relevant, it is a lasting reminder of what has worked, and what has not worked.
Now, 150 years later, we have the advantage of looking back over history and are able to view what happened with a different perspective removed from the emotions of the time, with an understanding built upon years of acquired knowledge.
Securing our civil rights and our freedoms, for no other reason than being born in the United States of America is one of the things that we can see was done right.
This is a privilege earned long ago through blood, sweat and tears; a privilege that dates back all the way to the Revolutionary War.
Colonists were not given the same freedoms by England that we have today, and while that is greatly oversimplifying things, it is how the war began and the new nation came into existence.
During the same time period, slavery was a common means of handling work around your home and land. A practice that would not be considered acceptable today.
Slave ownership lasted until the Civil War, around 80 years after the Revolutionary Conflict, the war ended, the slaves were freed, and again the landscape changed.
Even so, former slaves were still not afforded the same right to vote until the 15th Amendment February 3, 1870.
That was 150 years ago, yet it was only fifty-six years ago in 1954, that another amendment was added to compensate for the numerous loophole laws that kept the black men from exercising their right to vote.
Is this relevant in 2020? Of course, history is always relevant. It just takes one incident, to change the nation.
One action that goes just too far and isolates a group a people, and in turn they act the only way they feel will help.
The right or wrong of their action does not always come to their mind, all they see is a desire for change.
In 1770 it was how the British treated the colonist, in 1861 it was how the North treated the South, and right now, it could be how one type of person is treating another.
