How did the Boston Massacre help the colonists?
It provided fodder for propaganda and helped whip up revolutionary sentiment. The massacre began after a contingent of British troops were pelted with snowballs by a mob of Bostonians. Mind you, these were not your average fluffy snowballs but chunks of ice and rocks covered with snow. Fearing for their lives, the Redcoats opened fire. The troops were later charged and brought to trial. A Boston jury acquitted most of them, and convicted others of manslaughter. Those found guilty were branded on their thumbs. The defense attorney for the British troops was none other than John Adams, who later became the second president of the United States and was certainly no Tory.
