The event in Boston helped to unite the colonies against Britain. What started as a minor fight became a turning point in the beginnings of the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre helped spark the colonists’ desire for American independence, while the dead rioters became martyrs for liberty.

How did the Boston massacre affect British policies and relations between the two sides. Fearing more trouble, parliament repealed the townshend act taxes, expect on tea, and the colonists ended their boycotts, except on tea. It gave the company almost total control of the tea market in the colonies.

The heavy presence of British troops in Boston that lead to the fatal shooting was the direct results of the Townshend Acts passed by British Parliament to impose additional taxes on common products imported into the Colonies. These products among others included paper, glass and tea.

The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. 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.

Over the next five years, the colonists continued their rebellion and staged the Boston Tea Party, formed the First Continental Congress and defended their militia arsenal at Concord against the redcoats, effectively launching the American Revolution.

What was the Boston Massacre? The incident was the climax of growing unrest in Boston, fueled by colonists’ opposition to a series of acts passed by the British Parliament. As the mob insulted and threatened them, the soldiers fired their muskets, killing five colonists.

The journal of Thomas McCarty, a sergeant in the 8th Virginia Regiment, reports that British regulars shot civilians (at least two of them women) who were tending to wounded colonials after a nighttime engagement near New Brunswick on Feb. 1, 1777.