Who Were Killed By A Snowball Justified Murder?

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Does getting hit by a snowball justify murdering someone? On March 5th, 1770 five Boston colonists were shot. Three died at the scene and two died later from the gunshot wounds. The British soldiers, the Redcoats, shot the colonists. Some people think the soldiers shot in self-defense because the colonists were throwing snowballs and clubs at the soldiers. However, when a man named Samuel Atwood asked the soldiers if they intended to murder the colonists all along, they answered, “Yes,” and struck and wounded Atwood. The British soldiers shot and murdered the colonists because getting hit with a snowball does not make it okay to kill someone.
There are three main reasons that show the British intended to murder the colonists all along. The first reason is the soldiers were attacking unarmed colonists in the streets before the massacre happened. George Sanderlin walking around in the streets before the massacre started. Sanderlin states that, “...they attacked single and unarmed persons till they raised much clamor.” The soldiers wouldn’t attack defenseless colonists in the streets if they were trying to protect themselves. Sanderlin explained that Samuel …show more content…

In Paul Revere’s engraving, the Captain is holding a sword up and the soldiers have bayonets on the ends of their guns. Since only a few colonists were attacking the soldiers, they could have just used their bayonets to engage them. Some other pictures of the event shows a few of the colonists fighting back at the soldiers, but all pictures show bayonets on the end of the soldiers guns. The soldiers didn’t have to shoot at the big crowd of colonists, risking the lives of innocent bystanders. Instead, they could have used their bayonets to engage the ones causing the ruckus. Paul Revere’s visual portrayal of the event shows that the British soldiers had another option besides firing on the

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