Ordinary people can change the structure of our society in their daily lives. According to the Franks’s Asian Pacific American History, Agency is a term used to describe people making history. People can assert agency by grouping together and forming protests, joining labor movements and campaigning for a presidential candidate that represents them. There are many events in the past and present that individuals have strongly assert a sense of agency. Throughout our history, we understand how American Indians, blacks, and whites played a vital role in creating what America is now today. The first Americans were American Indians, however the origins of human being in America is open to dispute. There were generalization about North …show more content…
The Boston Massacre helped widen the gap between American colonist and British in 1770. During this time, a lot of young men were unemployed, and they were angry that only troops were hired to load cargoes from ships. The urban men gather together to cause trouble like throwing snowballs with stone at British troops. Then, the British shot them and five American colonist were killed (Jones, 151). Americans saw them as murders while the troops saw them as terrorist. The citizens like poor whites and farmers didn’t like Parliament imposing taxation without representation. For example, the British helped East India Company to dump tea in America. In the Boston Tea Party of 1773, white immigrants masked themselves as American Indians and board British ships, in order to dump tea into the sea. This further alienated the colonies from the British. Even though no one got hurt, this was seen as a revolt against British authority. The Parliament imposed another law, the Stamp Act of 1765 which require people to spend money for paying card and buy stamp along with it plus tax. The citizens protested against the Stamp Act by organizing secret group called “Sons of Liberty” (Jones, 142). The mob risked their lives to forcefully confiscated the cargo of stamps. The Sons of Liberty encouraged street violence on specific topics. They didn’t stop protesting until the Parliament repeal the Stamp Act in
Before the Boston Massacre even occurred, tensions were high in the city of Boston between the Bostonians and the British. At this time people were just getting over the Stamp Act and were now angered by the new taxes also known as the Townshend Duties. This new tax caused Bostonians to become more aggressive causing the British to send more soldiers to impose the laws of Parliament and to restore order among the people. The arrival of more soldiers only caused more of an uproar between the people of Boston and the red coats. Bostonians went out of their way to harass British soldiers whenever they got the chance, but on March 5, 1770 both sides acted unacceptably resulting in the Boston Massacre (84-85).
By this point, the colonists were beginning to question Britain’s motives towards them. They believed they were being treated like slaves and being used solely for the economic growth of Britain. One night, in 1773, the colonists rebelled against these taxes on their tea. A group of men dressed as Native Americans boarded a ship at Boston Harbor and unloaded three vessels of taxed tea (Boston Tea Party). This event, known a...
We, the people of the colonies, are being taxed without representation within Parliament. The British government is proving to be one of corrupt policies. The people here are boycotting the purchases of British imports. The British government has sent troops into all the colonies. Troops are looking for work in our colonies at our factories. In Boston on March 5, 1770, there was considered to be a massacre. Three troops had attempted to get a job at a local rope factory. The boss assigned them to latrine clean-up. These soldiers took this as an insult and reacted. The soldiers were beat and thrown in the streets. That night those soldiers were stationed outside the British Customs House. A mob gathered around the troops and a bell was rung to wake the town. British soldiers started shooting at the mob. There were a total of 5 dead and 8 wounded. This massacre led the British government to repeal the Townsend Acts on all products but tea. This was so the colonist...
In the article “Individual Autonomy and Social Structure”, Dorothy Lee talks about individual autonomy. She goes through the topic by examining different groups such as; the Wintu Indians of California, the Sikh family, the Navaho Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Chinese culture. All of these different groups and societies give personal freedom to the individuals regardless of age groups. The example of Navaho Indians is used by Lee to demonstrate how “personal autonomy is supported by the cultural framework” (Lee, 1959, p.5). She points out the individual autonomy of non-western societies to the individuality of western society. One group gives full independence to an individual while the other does not and puts restrictions in place through some form. She states “...in a heterogeneous society such as ours, and in an era of induced change and speeded temp of living, it has been difficult to implement this tenet in the everyday details of living” (Lee, 1959, p.5). She points out the fast living pace of western society, where the personal autonomy given from the other cultures is lacking.
In the mid eighteenth century colonist of the new world started to rebel against Britain. Living in the colonies cost Britain a great deal of money Colonist did not like that they were being taxed. There were several acts passed that angered the colonists. For example, the Stamp Act, the Stamp Act was passed in 1765 taxed all legal documents including newspapers and other printed materials. The Stamp Act affected all that bought printed materials and it did not affect the poor because it was not too expensive. The colonist started to rebel and boycotted “No taxation without representation.” The colonists rebelled in many ways one of them was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773 as an act of revolt colonists threw tea cargo of a ship to the ocean. These acts of Britain towards the new colonies caused colonist to revolve and declare war to separate from Britain. The colonists were not justified to going to war to break away from Britain because England was paying more taxes and the mother country deserved absolute respect; however, the colonists were justified to break away from Britain because they were taxed without representation.
After a decade of political and social disputes between the American colonies and the British government, war seemed inevitable. The Continental Congress tried to reach a political compromise but British taxes along with a growing presence of British regulars (soldiers) in the colonies, were fueling colonists talks of rebellion and the greater need for Independence. Deteriorating relations between the two came to a head on the evening of December 16, 1773, when sixty men disguised as Indians boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and proceeded to destroy and toss overboard more than 300 chests of British te...
The Boston Massacre occurred in the evening of March 5, 1770. A crowd of people began harassing the soldiers. One event lead to another and the crowd began hurling snowballs and rocks. One of the snowballs stuck a soldier and he fired his weapon causing a series of shots toward the crowd. “...the frightened soldiers fired into the crowd.” (Doc 3). As a result of this incident, three people were killed on the scene and two were mortally wounded. The soldiers were also ordered not to fire. The colonists did not think that they should have been shot at or killed, this infuriated them. This event was said to have started the American Revolution. This leads to the British seizing power over the
The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores'; (Mahin 1). A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.
Most people have heard of The Boston tea party. When American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the British ships in the Boston harbor and dumped all of the tea into the ocean. But what most people fail to realize is the great importance behind this protest. To fully understand a topic of history one must first acknowledge the actions behind it. The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, as well as the Tea Act are all important catalysts of the legendary Boston tea party. Which is why we will discuss these topics before examining the events of the Boston tea party.
The Boston Massacre discusses the most important events that turned the colonial sentiment against the" King George III and the British acts and taxes." The showdown between the British and the local people was not simply a war of words "blood was shed over the class of ideals." Davidson, James Wheeler. Experience History: Who was to blame for the Boston Massacre? 1st Ed Vol .1.McGraw-Hill, 2011.150-153 print.
Countless crises took place between the British and Americans, the Townshend Crisis, when London decided to impose a new set of taxes on Americans; a boycott began in Boston and soon spread to the Southern colonies. Americans showed resistance to the British goods. Boston soon became a focal area of conflict between the British and Americans. In March of 1770, after a snowball fight between Bostonians and British what is known as the Boston Massacre took place, leaving five Bostonians dead. The Tea Act also took place where there was a tax on tea, which just furthered proved the power of the British.
Many people believe that the Boston Massacre was a spur of the moment event. This is totally untrue. The French and Indian war put England in debt making England look for other sources of income. The king of England believed that the colonists should help to pay for the war because it took place in America. For a few months prior to the massacre, British troops had been stationed in Boston. The soldiers were in Boston to help with the collection of money to pay for duties on imported goods (Hansen 11). Tensions were high between the townspeople and the soldiers. Colonists greatly resented the soldiers because they believed that there should not be military personnel amongst them. The Bostonians took out their anger on the soldiers. In turn, the British troops were extremely unfriendly towards the people too. On many occasions, physical conflicts between the townspeople and the soldiers.
On March 5, 1770, an event occurred in Boston, which consisted of British troops shooting upon colonists. People refer to this as a massacre, but they only look at one side of the story. The Boston Massacre in 1770 was not really a massacre, but a mutual riot (Boston Massacre History Society). British soldiers went to America to keep the people of Boston in order. However, the soldier's presence there was not welcomed by the Bostonians and this made things worse (Boston Massacre History Society). The British had to fire their guns because the Bostonians were antagonizing the soldiers, which caused five people to die. The Bostonians made the soldiers feel threatened so in turn they acted in self-defense. The British soldiers and their Captain had to go through a trial, to prove they were not to blame for what had occurred.
Imagine a powerful organization from a different place coming into your town taking your jobs, destroying your possessions and telling you what you can and can't do. This is what the British were doing to the colonists during the time of the Boston massacre. The Boston Massacre was a conflict that happened on March 5th 1770. It happened near the courthouse in front of the church on a street called King Street. British soldiers had shot at a group of colonists killing 5 of them. Some think it was the British to blame for this tragedy but others think it was the colonists fault for this event.
Barker (2005) defines sense of agency as the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices, and impose those choices on the world. Imposing those choices on the world, however, almost always affects another, this plays an important role in social interaction – an exchange between two or more individuals which is a building block of society.