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This week in our series, we look at the start of the American Revolution. The road to revolution in the late seventeen hundreds took several years. There were protests against the British policy of taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament. To prevent trouble, the British sent thousands of soldiers to Boston, the largest city in Massachusetts. Jayne Gordon, the director of education and public programs at the Massachusetts Historical Society, explains the mood at the time. “We’re looking at a time of great tension, we’re looking at a time when there’s an expectation, I think, on both sides that something will happen but nobody knows exactly what or when.” On March fifth, seventeen seventy, that tension led to violence. It was the end of winter but the weather was still very cold. A small group of colonists began throwing rocks and pieces of ice at soldiers guarding a public building. They were joined by others, and the soldiers became frightened. They fired their guns. Five colonists were killed. The shooting became known as the Boston Massacre. The people of Massachusetts were extremely angry. The soldiers were tried in court for murder. Most of them were found innocent. The others received minor punishments. Fearing more violence, the British Parliament removed most of the taxes on the colonists. Only the tax on tea remained. | 
