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| coordinates = }} The Boston Massacre, known as the Incident on King Street by the British,〔Antal, "7 Leadership Lessons of the American Revolution", 40.〕 was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. The incident was heavily propagandized by leading Patriots, such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, to fuel animosity toward the British authorities.〔The Boston Massacre〕〔The American Past: A Survey of American History; Joseph Conlin P. 133〕〔Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda. Martin J. Manning Page 33〕 British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers, who were subjected to verbal threats and thrown objects. They fired into the crowd, without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. Two more people died later of wounds sustained in the incident. The crowd eventually dispersed after Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson promised an inquiry, but reformed the next day, prompting the withdrawal of the troops to Castle Island. Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder. Defended by the lawyer and future American president, John Adams, six of the soldiers were acquitted, while the other two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences. The men found guilty of manslaughter were sentenced to branding on their hand. Depictions, reports, and propaganda about the event, notably the colored engraving produced by Paul Revere (shown at right), further heightened tensions throughout the Thirteen Colonies. ==Background== (詳細はBoston, the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and an important shipping town, was a major center of resistance to unpopular acts of taxation by the British Parliament in the 1760s.〔 In 1768, the Townshend Acts were placed upon the colonists, by which a variety of common items that were manufactured in Britain and exported to the colonies were subjected to import tariffs. Colonists objected that the Townshend Acts were a violation of the natural, charter, and constitutional rights of British subjects in the colonies.〔 The Massachusetts House of Representatives began a campaign against the Townshend Acts by sending a petition to King George III asking for the repeal of the Townshend Revenue Act. The House also sent what became known as the Massachusetts Circular Letter to other colonial assemblies, asking them to join the resistance movement,〔Knollenberg, ''Growth'', p. 54.〕 and called for a boycott of merchants importing the affected goods.〔Ross and McCaughey, ''From Loyalist to Founding Father'', p. 94.〕 In Great Britain, Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial Secretary, was alarmed by the actions of the Massachusetts House. In April 1768 he sent a letter to the colonial governors in America, instructing them to dissolve the colonial assemblies if they responded to the Massachusetts Circular Letter. He also ordered Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard to direct the Massachusetts House to rescind the letter. The house refused to comply.〔Knollenberg, ''Growth'', p. 56.〕 Boston's chief customs officer, Charles Paxton, wrote to Hillsborough, asking for military support because "the Government is as much in the hands of the people as it was in the time of the Stamp Act."〔Triber, ''A True Republican'', p. 66.〕 Commodore Samuel Hood responded by sending the fifty-gun warship , which arrived in Boston Harbor in May 1768.〔Knollenberg, ''Growth'', p. 63.〕 On June 10, 1768, customs officials seized the ''Liberty'', a sloop owned by leading Boston merchant John Hancock, on allegations that the ship had been involved in smuggling. Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the ''Romney'' had been impressing local sailors, began to riot.〔Triber, ''A True Republican'', p. 63.〕 Customs officials fled to Castle William for protection.〔Ross and McCaughey, ''From Loyalist to Founding Father'', p. 93.〕 Given the unstable state of affairs in Massachusetts, Hillsborough instructed General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief, North America, to send "such Force as You shall think necessary to Boston".〔Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 75.〕 On October 1, 1768, the first of four British Army regiments began disembarking in Boston.〔Knollenberg, ''Growth'', p. 76.〕 Two regiments were removed from Boston in 1769, but the 14th and the 29th Regiments of Foot remained.〔 The ''Journal of Occurrences'', an anonymously written series of newspaper articles, chronicled clashes between civilians and soldiers while troops were stationed in Boston, feeding tensions with its sometimes exaggerated accounts of the events. Tensions rose markedly after Christopher Seider, "a young lad about eleven Years of Age", was killed by a customs employee on February 22, 1770.〔Knollenberg, ''Growth'', pp. 76–78.〕 Seider's death was glorified in the ''Boston Gazette'', and his funeral was described as one of the largest of the time in Boston. The killing and subsequent propaganda inflamed tensions, with gangs of colonists looking for soldiers to harass, and soldiers also on occasion looking for confrontation.〔Middlekauff, ''Glorious Cause'', pp. 208–210.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boston Massacre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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