On the cold, snowy night of March 5, 1770, a mob of American
colonists gathered at the Customs House in Boston and began
taunting the British soldiers guarding the building.
The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting
the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to
Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed
by a British parliament that lacked American representation.
British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the
Customs House, ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join
the guard outside the building.
The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects
at the British regulars, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit,
leading him to discharge his rifle at the crowd.
The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the
smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying—Crispus
Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick and
James Caldwell—and three more were injured.
Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, an African
American, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the
deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as
the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.
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