Seems that the fifth was the anniversary of the Boston Massacre. Seems that the colonists were trying to pick a fight (no surprise there) and that the British reluctantly obliged after Private Hugh Montgomery slipped and fell in the snow, "leading him to discharge his rifle into the jeering crowd". After a general barrage by the soldiers, five men lay dead: Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Smauel Maverick, James Caldwell, and Crispus Attucks. Attucks, a "sailor of African and Indian ancestry", was the first black man to die for America.
The soldiers, defended by none other than John Adams, were tried and two were found guilty of manslaughter and branded on the thumb.
07 March 2008
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